The current liberal world order was established after World War II, by the creation and enhancement of global governance systems such as the UN, participation in the WTO and WHO, as well as the IMF and more. However, the current rise of populism and cracks in NATO has shown the schism between elites vs. the population has been rising everywhere, including the West.
The current liberal world order has been put in place by the U.S., but with the influence of various countries across the world increasing in scope, the current world liberal order seems to be at stake. There seems to be a fundamental issue of trust with various people and both national and global institutions, as well as expertise. In addition, although the global governance systems – as well as national political institutions – has stayed relatively stagnant or behind in adapting to new demands and changes, the pace at which both technology and private industry has evolved has been very fast. Owing to this, there are a lot of issues that point to a fundamental change that needs to happen.
No one can see what will happen next – with the COVID-19 crisis, economically other rising powers such as China has cemented its influence as well as economic growth internally, but there are also U.S. policy changes that will most likely happen under Biden-Harris post-2020. There remains a lot to be seen, but it seems that there are more things pointing to a change in the liberal world order – whether by a new successor – or a fundamental change to amend it from its existing system.
https://www.cfr.org/article/liberal-world-order-rip
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/09/liberal-international-order-free-world-trump-authoritarianism/569881/