None of these phenomenon should be untangled if we want to understand them properly.

We have inherited the world that the 1980s left for us. Just as they inherited a postwar order that defined the terms of their political decision-making. And that order came from resolution of two major, violent, international ruptures in the first half of the 20th century. And so on all the way down.

If people think the world is worse now, maybe it's because they've seen the promise of liberalism's triumph in the 90s dissolve into meaninglessness. But then they should spin that around and consider that those promises weren't real in the first place, nor was liberalism's triumph.