In a progressively more precarious existence, that's what happens. The problem is that the elections don't address the real power structure that would need to change to improve the odds of our survival.
If Gene Rodenberry were alive, I'd want to ask him how he envisioned the Star Trek future overcame the hold of the wealthy over power structures.
I look at various visions of the future, and I'd want to live in the Star Trek vision of the future. I just wonder how we get there...
I can speculate that Khan and his group of supposedly enhanced comrades displaced them and then fled. As I recall, the countries were recovering from the conflict when Zephram Cochcrane used a recycled ICBM as the basis for his warp-capable 'ship'.