On a macro scale, what the West is proving right now, primarily through elite-demanded uncontrolled immigration, and fiat money debasing all industrialized economies, both of which are enabled and encouraged by those we elect and yet whom we refuse to hold accountable to their responsibilities... is that self-government cannot work.
The post-war era has had the highest prosperity in history, the fastest acceleration of new technology reducing friction in everything from housework to international trade, the broadest voter franchise, the highest number of people going through both K-12 and college/university... and everything is becoming less-free and less-prosperous.
If the phrase is correct that "what cannot continue, won't," then, this era of “self government” is coming to an end.
And should.
It is benefiting only the elites, and harming those who pretend that it can work.
Hoppe is correct: Democracy. The God That Failed.