Skarr wrote: One man could make a difference then and could completely influence the legislation to an extent that is not possible today. Therein lies the difference, as true dictatorship is very much a thing of the past, something that is not fully appreciated today in our fragmented society.

That this is not really true you can see from looking around you - there are (too) many dictatorships all over the world.
But I think you are right too when you say it is not the doing of only one man; a dictatorship is more one clique than one man, but so it has always been. Cicero himself wrote in a letter (I can check the exact one if you want) that the problem was not perhaps really Caesar but those around him whom he had to satisfy.
What says our distinguished guest? :-)