You are right, countries are so different and with different stories and background;
Norway became a kingdom in 872, 1152 years ago
The great library of Alexandria in Egypt, which is now lost, had something like 400.000 scrolls covering an enormous amount of scientific writing that was all lost and gone.
Look towards Switzerland, became democracy in 1291 so those guys have 733 years of trying to make things right. In the swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, only those who meet up at the townhall with swords do have the right to vote, so "no sword = no vote", you vote by raising your sword.
In all areas of Switzerland, important issues are decided by referendums and not by the politicians, making Switzerland what I think is a real, genuine, democracy. Anyone can raise an issue for referendum by raising enough supporting votes for the issue to go to a votation.
The process of building a real-working democracy takes ages, but the US should have had the time to make it right and I wonder why it is going so haywire now these days.
Fully agree that US seem to be going towards me, me, me, me, while Norway has gone too much towards us, us, us, us. There is a balance to be found there but the US seem to be so insanely divided so that You can´t call it United States anymore..... There must be a way to make Un-united States of America to United States of America again. Trump definitely don´t have the answers to that!