This journal article (which I skimmed, but have not read in great detail, so don’t grill me about any details in it) I think does a decent job of surveying the changes in world politics: https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/30-years-of-world-politics-what-has-changed/
The key thing from the article that I think is really true is the rise of identity politics across the political spectrum.
That article is an interesting read and raises some good points: the changes between the left and right and increase in identity politics. There's a lot to go through, but I'll keep it to my main criticisms:
The false idea nationalism is bad because of the Nazis in WW2. Extreme nationalism is definitely bad, but that doesn't mean it's always bad. Nationalism gives people a sense of belonging, for example the way Brits came out to celebrate the jubilee then mourn the death of the queen. It helps bind people of different creeds, colours and classes. Without nationalism, a country would be easily defeated in war, because the people would have no motivation to defend it.
The false idea multiculturalism can work and different peoples can get along fine together, avoiding conflict, in a democratic society. This doesn't work. When there are different peoples with widely different cultures in a country, tensions become inevitable. They voluntarily segregate. One wishes to be around others who share the same language and values. Social disorder and violence erupt, when interests between one group and another clash. An authoritarian government can hold things together, but when the regime topples, violence ensues. Examples of this are, Rwanda, Yugoslavia and India. The sectarian violence in the English Midlands at the end of the summer, shows our government's multicultural experiment isn't going well. Nationalism can help: the reason why the US has been stable is because one is an American first, before being black, Jewish, Hispanic etc. but there are still some tensions.
No mention is made of cancel culture. The fact someone can lose their livelihood and face persecution from the powerful because they say something a little politically incorrect.
No mention is made of the left wing bias in academia. A student who said voted from Trump would invariably face retribution at many universities in the US. There's also a similar problem in the UK.
A big blow to democracy has been the authoritarian response to the pandemic, by many so-called democratic countries. This isn't a criticism of the article because it was written at the start of 2020. It's just an observation.
In my view, too much immigration is a huge threat to democracy in the UK. I don't have a problem with foreigners. The issue is, many of those coming here do not support our liberal values. It's impossible to have immigration and not import the culture. This wasn't a problem when it was mostly Europeans with similar values and they came slowly, but now too many people are coming from illiberal cultures, in large numbers.
Regarding my comment about fine arts studies: you seem to have taken it too literally, because it appeared I was lumping all arts into the dumb box, which isn't the case. I don't know whether there's such a thing, but I know there are silly arts degrees. A friend told me his girlfriend only had to do a few hours a week for her arts degree and most of the final mark was awarded on a crappy performance consisting of her lying on her back waving her legs in the air. I can't remember the name of the course but I think it had fine arts in the title, although I might be misremembering.