I do think you’re a bit pessimistic here - great change is still possible through a combination of leverage and the iron law of institutions. Just as the implicit threat of violence caused the creation of the modern welfare state, and the destruction of explicitly racial laws during the Civil Rights movement, so too can this be defeated. All it takes is growing discontent and disorder, combined with the ambitious, to restructure a society, even radically so.

Of course, such is also a game of chicken, with each side daring the other to swerve first, and the best way to win a game of chicken is to prefer collision to swerving…