Ayn Rand warned us a recipe for how totalitarian societies emerge. Yes, they sometimes begin with an dictator sweeping aside a government at the point of a gun (French, Russian, Cuban revolutions) but they also sometimes start with a slow, stead, legal erosion of fundamental liberties. With each small reduction in individual liberty, the central power gains more authority, more control. Eventually it stops consenting to be ruled by the people and decides to rule them instead. And what are the people to do then?
As you read her works, it's striking how many "ripped from today's headlines" examples you will find that line up exactly with what she wrote 60 years ago.