The Rulebook Is Being Rewritten, and Not Only in Washington.
The Rulebook Is Being Rewritten, and Not Only in Washington. The End of the Repair Era. Something fundamental has shifted in how the world's most powerful nations approach their own institutions. For decades, the operating assumption of Western statecraft was that the post-war order could be fixed, patched, and improved through incremental reform. That assumption is now collapsing under the weight of its own failures. A growing share of voters and political movements across Western democracies have stopped believing the system can repair itself. Instead of demanding fixes, they are choosing demolition. Institutions are being dismantled not because replacements are ready, but because faith in the old machinery has evaporated. This is not a policy shift. It is a deeper structural realignment—a crisis of legitimacy that no election cycle can resolve. The distinction matters because it explains why conventional analysis keeps missing what is happening. Policy shifts respond to ...