Rome was neither built in a day and nor did it decline instantly. Italy has been crumbling over the last two decades under the weight of structural malfunction. The fall reached precipitous levels in recent days with institutional gridlock and economic panic threatening another Europe-wide meltdown. Since March, Italy lacked a government amid extreme uncertainty and confrontation between firebrand right-wing populists and their liberal opponents. Constitutional principles like the ‘will of the majority’ and ‘checks and balances’ wrestled with each other in a nerve-wracking contest of wills.