When autocracy takes hold in a country, everything goes on as before—police go on policing, landlords go on collecting rent, people go on showing up to work. The transition takes place so smoothly because all the elements necessary to fascism were present under democracy.

https://crimethinc.com/democracy

People imagine fascism as the opposite of democratic governance. In fact, it employs the same police, courts, property rights, patriotic mythology, and habits of obedience as state democracy. Wherever there is a powerful state with a monopoly on violence, fascism is only an election away.

This is why resistance to authoritarianism must take place at all times, not simply when an army is invading under swastika flags. We must never conflate the smooth functioning of the state with freedom itself. Assuming that the "rule of law" is identical with self-determination gives aspiring despots a free hand.