One thing we can give Trump major credit for and that is a lot of the awakening. It did for me for sure so can only assume it was the catalyst for many others also.
I read a very interesting piece from Off-Guardian on this very subject:
American Democracy: A Dead Man Walking by Paul Craig Roberts
https://off-guardian.org/2017/05/04/american-democracy-a-dead-man-walking/
In addition, Jordan Sather has some thought provoking theories that he discusses in this video here: