Point is, the US for example, has never been pure democracy. It has borrowed democratic traits, but it is not a democracy. The founding fathers put stops in place literally to prevent democratic behaviours, putting more power to a balanced state, rather than the people.

As an example, Adams loathed the idea of women and people without property getting to vote. These are votes toward representatives that they did not even initially get a say in. Then there’s the electoral college, the party system, etc. These are things they put in place to prevent their percieved shortcomings of democracy.

So, really, you’d say the US is showing fewer democratic values than it has in some time, but it was never a democracy.