Fully direct on a Nation state level would maybe be possible now with the Internet.

That's my point. It might seem dangerous to rely on the Internet for such basic matters, but it's already being used to great effect to undermine all democracies. So there's no choice, it's like an arms race. (Still, probably for elections it'd make sense to have a countrywide parallel intranet, so that someone's error in setting up a BGP router wouldn't disrupt it.).

But yeah, this system has it’s weaknesses with complicated or emotional topics. But then again, we are all humans.

That's the other side of the problem - modern easiness of propaganda.

OK, I live in Russia, just rather sad to see how many other countries are slowly drifting in the same regrettable unsavory direction.