I wonder if authoritarian vs libertarian is on a pendulum as well. Smarter people with smarter choices leading to more libertarians.
Libertardians are dumb people who think they're smart because it's nothing but a theoretical construct that doesn't exist in reality. It's a fraction of a second power vacuum that's replaced by a strongman. If you waved a magic wand to force the US to be "libertarian", then all it means is that someone like George Soros is your new ruler (not that he isn't already).
Fair point. But the difference between government authority and George Soros is that Soros weasles his way around to impact the world to his liking. But he has no immediate authority over individuals (unless he kills them) and people are still free to play within the status quo and break out of it.
In the case of an authoritarian government on the other hand things look a bit different as they can exert control over individuals directly. Which makes it much harder to "outplay" them.