They could get away with so much if they could just curb their inclination to stick their noses into every little thing.
For the most part people are not interested in politics. They just want to be left alone under their own vine and fig tree without worrying about someone coming over the wall.
A smart dictator will make sure these people are given what they want. It doesn't take much. Just allow them run their lives in the little ways and they will leave the big things up to you.
You can literally get away with murder.
But there seems to be a major desire to run ever little aspect of peoples lives. For their own good of course.
So they meddle and they meddle and they meddle until the entire thing blows up in their face and they sit there wondering what went wrong.
Franco in Spain and Tito in Yugoslavia were smart .