Originally Posted by MaxQ

Thanks for this. A good post.

Populists/demagogues excell at exploiting legitimate problems, plus creating additional fake problems, for short term power and theft opportunitys.
It, as pointed out, usually ends poorly because there is no willingness to do the actual work of governing.

A deeper threat is when the populist movement comes under the control of true revolutionaries. They understand that, to gain total autocratic control, they must first destroy the existing structure. Reforming existing institutions isn't on the agenda, because those institutions exist to protect the weak from the powerful. (simplfied version).
So the institutions must be destroyed. Then we can have the utopia of being ruled by the worthy. (today it seems to be the tech billionaires pushed by FOX et al....each age has it's self designated chosen )