Democracy inherently self destructive

Whatever Tocqueville’s  admiration for certain forms of American society, and whatever his conviction that worldwide democratic revolution was ‘irresistible’, he ultimately thought democracy inherently self-destructive, and the pursuit of equality a form of false consciousness. As democracy progressed, true liberty would inevitably vanish along with the aristocrats who were its best defenders, and only ‘soft despotism’ would remain, in a society dominated by the pursuit of material gain.