Democracy in crisis?

Capitalism seems to follow Marx's prediction and stumble from crisis to crisis almost automatically. On the other hand democracy seems to create a system that increases inequality.
Indeed, contemporary democracy is in a crisis and has shown its many deficiencies. Same as in the past - Socrates was democratically murdered, remember? And a communist country was the first to open space for humanity. Still democracy and free markets seem like the most capable systems to produce constantly improving quality of life and will continue to do so if "We the middle-class" keep those two systems in check.