De Jouvenel said it all in one profound paragraph:

"From the twelfth to the eighteenth century governmental authority grew continuously. The process was understood by all who saw it happening; it stirred them to incessant protest and...reaction. In later times its growth has continued at an accelerated pace...And now we no longer understand the process, we no longer protest, we no longer react. This quiescence of ours is a new thing, for which Power has to thank the smoke-screen in which it has wrapped itself...Masked in anonymity, it claims to have no existence of its own, and to be but the impersonal and passionless instrument of the general will."

Let's break this down, point by point, to understand it better: