Yes. Especially this quote from your post:

“That’s the pivot point people can’t grasp: it’s not the abuse of power that ends a republic, it’s the failure to punish it.”

Exactly! The elite corporate criminals have broken all the laws for decades and were never punished. For example - the ones who created the sub-prime mortgage disaster of 2007-2008 - - when both Bush and Obama failed to hold any of the corporate criminals accountable — and millions of Americans lost their homes. THIS NEEDED PUNISHMENT! Yet Obama bailed out Wall Street and threw Americans under the bus. This was a major nail in the coffin of democracy. There are hundreds of other examples from Reagan forward, as you say. Failures to defend social justice and democracy in order to protect corporate profits and the elite. The toll of hundreds upon hundreds of these failures has come due.

Despite these failures, my prayer is that enough people will finally wake up and find ways to hold the elite criminals accountable. Perhaps we can create a Phoenix to rise from the ashes of utter destruction, but it may take a very, very long time. Thank you for your clarity.