A recent Macrobusiness article (linked below), warns that neoliberalism is slowly sinking the democratic ship. It highlights how market-oriented policies, globalisation, and elite consensus have hollowed out national sovereignty, widened inequality, and left ordinary citizens feeling powerless as their leaders appear more loyal to international capital and supranational institutions than to their own voters.
Decades of offshoring, financialisation, open borders, and the erosion of manufacturing have strained social cohesion in many Western nations. Trust in institutions has collapsed, and political systems increasingly feel like managed spectacles rather than genuine expressions of the popular will.
Yet the article's focus on "neoliberalism" as the primary villain misses a deeper, more troubling reality. The failures of contemporary political leaders go far beyond any single economic ideology. What we are witnessing is a broader managerial capture of democracy itself, a transnational elite class that uses whatever ideological label is convenient (neoliberal, progressive, technocratic) to justify insulating itself from democratic accountability.
The Real Problem: Disconnected Rulers
Modern leaders across the West often behave less like representatives of their people and more like mid-level executives in a global enterprise. They prioritise:
Trade deals and migration policies that benefit large corporations and cheap labour pools over wage growth and social stability for citizens.
Climate, digital, and health agendas pushed by international bureaucracies and NGOs, often at the expense of national interests.
Cultural and demographic changes that many voters never consented to, while dismissing opposition as "populism" or worse.
This isn't purely a neoliberal phenomenon. Progressive governments pursue the same top-down managerialism under different slogans, equity, sustainability, inclusion. The common thread is the belief that complex modern societies are best governed by credentialed experts and global networks rather than by the messy will of the people.
Neoliberalism certainly contributed by elevating market efficiency and capital mobility above all else. But the deeper sickness is the abdication of sovereignty and the contempt many elites now openly display toward their own populations. When leaders speak of "populist threats to democracy," they often mean threats to their preferred consensus, one that conveniently shields them from electoral consequences.
Democracy's Slow Erosion
Voters notice when housing becomes unaffordable, communities change rapidly, energy prices spike, and cultural institutions turn hostile to traditional values. They notice when dissent on major issues (immigration, COVID policy, net zero) is censored or pathologised. The democratic ship isn't just leaking because of free trade or deregulation. It is taking on water because the captain and officers no longer see the passengers as the rightful owners of the vessel.
True accountability requires leaders who put their own citizens first, economically, culturally, and demographically. This transcends Left-Right economic debates. A genuine conservative or nationalist approach would defend borders, sovereignty, and the national interest. An honest social democratic one would defend the working class over global capital. Instead, we get a uniparty consensus that serves the Davos circuit more than the local pub.
The Macrobusiness critique rightly identifies symptoms of democratic decline. But pinning it all on "neoliberalism" lets too many actors off the hook. The problem is a ruling class that has largely abandoned the idea of the nation-state as a meaningful vehicle for democratic self-government. Whether they call themselves neoliberals, globalists, or enlightened progressives, the effect is the same: power flows upward and outward, away from the people.
Reversing this trend requires more than tweaking economic policy. It demands a restoration of national sovereignty, honest representation, and leaders willing to defy elite consensus when it conflicts with the common good of their citizens. Until that happens, the democratic ship will continue its slow, deliberate descent, not because of one ideology, but because those steering it no longer believe the passengers should have the final say.