It's become a cliché that the Tories want to return to the 1950s, before the age of mass migration and our entanglement with the EU. These, however, are not the only examples of Tories discomfort with the modern world. Tom Welsh says the Tory party is threatened by the large number of university graduates, and Amber Rudd seems befuddled by the internet.

This poses the question: why are the Tories so unhappy with the 21^st century?

It hasn't always been so. Cameron and Osborne, despite being lamentably incompetent, at least seemed comfortable in today's world - and not just financially. And whilst Thatcher spoke of Victorian values, her project was also one of modernizing the economy, at least by her own lights. Toryism has not always been a nostalgic yearning for the past.

In fact, to we relics of the 1980s, there's something especially paradoxical about the ascendancy of reaction among Tories. I remember Cold Warriors celebrating Karl Popper's vision of an open society: Thatcher called The Open Society and its Enemies a "marvellous book." In some respects, though, we now have such an open society: migration; gender fluidity; less deference; and peer-to-peer communication which bypasses traditional hierarchies. And many Tories hate it.

Why? Here are two theories.

First, the 21^st century hasn't delivered what the Tories hoped. They had hoped that the defeat of trades unions, privatization, cuts to top taxes, deregulation and fiscal austerity would unleash a dynamic, productive economy. It hasn't.

This means we need to rethink the relationship between markets, hierarchies and the state - which means, of course, rethinking not just social democracy but Toryism too. May's talk of the need for an industrial strategy was a dim recognition of this. But the Tories (perhaps temporarily, perhaps not) lack the intellectual resources for this task. Thatcher could invoke Friedman, Hayek, Popper and the architects of public choice theory. Who has May got?

I suspect one reason for the popularity of Brexit on the right is that, having vanquished unions and red tape, the EU is pretty much the only scapegoat they have left for the UK's disappointing economic performance.

Secondly, and perhaps relatedly, the Tory base is breaking up.

One aspect of this is that the always uneasy coalition between business and social conservatives looks less tenable today than ever: the Brexit supported by old reactionaries is against the interest of finance and much of business. Today's Tories thus have a more precarious client base.

A second aspect is that the decline of property ownership and degradation of erstwhile good jobs has eroded one source of support for the Tories. In the 80s, young urban professionals (yuppies) were Thatcherites. Their equivalents today are Corbynistas.

I know I might well be guilty of wishful thinking in saying this. But it could be that the Tories are so unhappy with the 21^st century simply because it offers them nothing but the refutation of their beliefs and decline in their power.