Iterating on less bad still goes bad with time. The fact that you've boiled the frog slowly doesn't mean the frog is any less boiled than if some extremist shows up and sticks their dick in various sectors of the economy in a short time period.

If anything the slow boil is worse because it more thoroughly cements the dysfunction as people eek out various niches within it.

The "neoliberal" approach that you are advocating for has been done for the past 50-100yr depending on were you want to measure the start and the results are all around us. Just because things can get worse doesn't mean the current approach and it's peddlers aren't all some combination of wrong and/or evil.

Fractional central planning, which is basically what the current approach aims for with it's carrot and stick policy solution to literally everything, is still central planning. It just gets co-opted and fails slower so instead of the 2nd or 3rd iteration of decision makers sending it all to hell it's the 12th or 13th or whatever. Whatever the level of sustainable central planning is is clearly less than we have now.

You're a victim of capitalist realism (we all are tbh).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism

Neoliberalism is unable to address the growing inequalities of our societies (in fact, it is often to blame for them). This, in turn, is driving us toward right-wing authoritarianism as populists are taking advantage of the growing frustration of the middle class.

Fascism is the logical end point of neoliberalism. It is the time when things are so bad you need to find scapegoats to prevent the rise of class consciousness and continue financial liberalization.

My view is that neoliberalism is not the "least bad" ideology, it is a slow and sinister destruction of our society for the benefit of the capital owners, hiding behind a mask of humanism that slips off the minute it becomes inconvenient to keep wear it.