I think back to something Steve Bannon said in
an excellent interview with PBS: populism was on the rise on both sides of the aisle back in 2008. On the right, it manifested as Sarah Palin, who was popular but subordinated to McCain, and Ron Paul, who was squashed by Romney. On the left, it manifested as Obama, who immediately turned neo-liberal/corporate once he got into office. Bernie represented its resurgence, and got cucked twice.
Trump represents the only success populism has had in decades, and he barely pulled it out both times against a completely rigged system. That's great, as far as it goes, but it doesn't represent
growth or momentum.
Right wing populism may have reached its limits, especially if Trump doesn't reign in the means of grassroots organization (social media, Big Tech, payment processors). Left wing populism might already be dead, we'll have to see in the months after the election what the data says. In any case lefty populism has been betrayed in after every election for the last 12 years. When that happened on the right... we got Trump.
I'm not going to write an epitaph for populism yet, it's clearly alive, and the sole driver of organic political enthusiasm. But we've observed its limitations on the left for 4 cycles now. And tonight, we may have observed its limits for growth on the right.