SA writes:
"A lot of periods may have lacked much objective resistance, but the current period is unusual for how weak even subjective opposition is. There's an unusual level of active identification with the system."
I agree with all of that but the last sentence, which is more problematic. There is quite demonstrably a falling away of popular identification with left parties, trade unions, militancy and so on. On one level that leads to greater authority for the employers, and certainly many have said that that is the reason for the moderation in wage demands that allowed employers to hold them down even as demand for labour rose throughout the period 1995-2005.
'Identification with the system' though, it strikes me is at a very low ebb. Certainly there is an intense hostility to the political class, and, I would say, quite a high level of distrust towards business as well. Not active political opposition, but an intense level of distrust.