The same people, when they got laid off or made part-time, now depend on food stamps and free healthcare.
A democracy ends when more and more people figure out they can survive by voting for candidates who will give them more free stuff.
"The state—or, to make the matter more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods. " H. L. Mencken