I'm not convinced it's correct to regard populism as being in any way pro-democracy. I'd say it's more a seizure of power by oligarchs and traditional authoritarian elements at the expense of the bourgeoisie. And in the US, instability in the middle classes has replaced a large section of the bourgeoisie with an unstable and precarious population of technocrats, as other traditional bourgeois occupations such as medicine, academics and law have declined in wealth, influence and security. So in a sense, the US is reverting to an early capitalist pattern where there is a powerful rentier class, a thin middle class delivering administrative and technical services to the rentiers, alongside declining traditional professions that are being hollowed out. And then there's a vast and growing pool of immiserated, barely-skilled workers who are being transformed into lumpen elements by the oligarch-controlled media and state, and a growing underclass who can only find work in the shadow economy or the gig economy, or who can't find work at all.