The absolute entrenchment of a cult of personality in the structure and bureaucracy of government is the takeaway for me. People often mistake the western democracies (US namely) as far from this, but an enabling act would take only a single landslide election and a "national emergency" real or not could easily provide such a thing in tithe shape of a constitutional amendment. Then what happens depends upon the man at the center of the cult be he Augustus... Or Hitler or FDR.