Its true that they have gotten better at their "simmer tactics", as you put it, but they have also let a lot of unrelenting blowhards into their ranks that have been so far impossible for them to stifle and are really cramping their style.

I've often felt that while history seems doomed to its cyclical nature, we have lived straddling two ages in human history. I am of course not at all sure how the Information Age will effect history unfolding this time and into the future, but I think it simply has to have some effect that has never before been seen prior, which is scary, but also fascinating and exciting.

One glimmer of hope I see already is the xenophobic, nationalist nature of these strongman autocrat types that cover the pages of history books does not play well at all anywhere but at home. Every time I see one of these infamous goons try to reach across the national boundary to help a fellow authoritarian gain or consolidate power, presumably in an effort to build up a new "Axis", it is a kiss of death. In the past, it was much easier for these things to happen away from the public eye, and for the grotesqueness of the foreign autocrat to be largely unknown at home, but now the smoky back room is being live streamed around the globe, and the foreign autocrat has a billion views on social media.

Maybe the revolution be televised after all!