My impression is that these things are sort of oscillatory. And when things get too irrational in one direction or another, eventually there is a correction.

If people try to restrain the corrective response, it can be delayed, but it will eventually emerge.

At first these movements do not seem problematic, particularly. For example, in this last iteration, they cloaked themselves in the notions of fairness and justice, which most people agree with. But as they evolve, darker strains seem to become dominant. And just like a frog slowly boiling to death in a pot of water whose temperature is being raised incrementally, we start to get cooked.

At this point, the system is unstable. And small perturbations can disrupt the process. I think we are starting to see some push-back against some truly awful policies.

Will the response overshoot the optimal "setpoint" or equilibrium? It is difficult to say. This often happens. It might occur this time, or it might not.

These would be perfect things for sociologists to investigate. But they are more interested in ephemera and nonsense.