[bbc.com]

You wouldn't be the first to come to that conclusion.

Unfortunately I personally don't think we ever left that system. It was just renamed.

We still have the power to stop such arrogance in action. However, if the voters stay asleep and allow any more gerrymandering, it will be impossible to stop the Democrats takeover and abuse of power.
Pretty sad and pathetic state of a party when you have to change the rules to be able to win and to stay in power.
A legitimate win would be issue and policy driven, not sleazy lying obstruction.

Douglas Murray on the subject:

Richard Dawkins is a brilliant evolutionary biologist, but is an elitist:

I think people are perhaps starting to wake up to the fact it never went away. They were just willingly deluded into thinking they lived in "free" countries.

We have seen a resurgence in oligarchy all over the world. And oligarchs hate it when you point out their oligarching, hence wholesale bans on those who call them out in social media.
It explains the fake news phenomenon as well.