Metrics of democracy across the globe have found the project in decline for years now. Trump is where this gets you, not what causes it.
There’s a very real chance democracy as we know it may not survive the lifespan of the discussion I want to have, but here it is: we must immediately examine the mechanisms by which the essential structures of modern democracy can be separated from the venality, incompetence and corruption of the politicians in charge of them.
Note I do not say we must discuss the desirability of this separation….