The common thread in all these examples is the dysfunction of political, economic, media and academic elites. They persist in the belief that they understand what is best for ordinary people better than those people do themselves. In their persistence one sees complacency about actual results. Ordinary voters seem to be responding as Queen Elizabeth II reportedly did when, just after the 2008 financial meltdown, she asked a group of experts, “How come nobody could foresee it?”

One answer is that success breeds failure. As the economic journalist Robert Samuelson has argued, the apparent success of 1960s Keynesian pump-priming led to the 1970s stagflation, and the apparent success of 1980s and 1990s central bankers led to the 2007-2008 crash.

Another is that elites remain preoccupied with problems that have long been solved. Angela Merkel, raised in East Germany, naturally abhors walls. But the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, 27 years ago. Eurocrats believe the EU prevents another war between France and Germany. The last one ended in 1945, 71 years ago.