It can be very difficult for a nation to convert from dictatorship to democracy, but dangerously easy to give up democracy in favor of dictatorship...because the people can freely decide to do so. The most famous historical example is, of course, Germany, and it illustrates the dynamics of the process. Times were hard, the economy was in ruins, national pride was ebbing, people were suffering and unhappy, the nation was surrounded by hostility and military threat. Fertile ground for a strongman to come along and promise to rescue the nation with strong measures, and all the people had to do was vote "yes". Hitler made the German people an offer they couldn't refuse.

This is an eternal dynamic made up of human nature and the fluid nature of democracy..."in this day and age" doesn't enter into it. It's probably true that people in America who are nervous about the "Patriot" Act and Aschcroft are overreacting, but that reaction is healthy, a sort of immune-system response to counter the trend to drift into dictatorship when we're feeling threatened and fearful. A democracy is most at risk of failing when there's uniformity of opinion and unquestioning support of the leadership...that's when the lemmings start running for the cliff.