Certainly institutions play a role in maintaining humankind's tragic direction. However, they could have a role in changing the course.

Consider for a moment that
      a) governments play a "following" role rather than a "leading" role
                  in human existence.
            For example
                        governments came into existence following agricultural surplus
                        governments function follows from a need to:
                              constrain uncivilized individual action within the group.
                              enhance
                                    economies of scale,
                                    specialization of labor, and
                                    protected trade, and
                              manage
                                    economic cycles
                                    resource constraints
                                    reduction in supporting resources
                                    untenable distribution of resources
                                    outside competition for internal resources
                                    acquisition of outside resources

      b) After initial formation governments calcify and
                        change only with large pushes from:
            public will
                  (think suffrage or abolition)
            changed conditions.
                  population: (think plague, migration, reproduction)
                  resources (think soil water, minerals, energy)
                        exhaustion
                        discovery,
                        outside competitions

Now given this view how do we unwind the human predicament.

Let me suggest three steps.
      1) we change the common will without
                        any initial attempt to change common behavior.
            That is we get a large number (maybe half of the earth’s population) to
                  a) reject the current course and expected future conditions.
                  b) visualize a working system
                              (a future sustainable peaceful civilization) and,
                  c) understand which actions transition our current civilization to
                           this new one
      2) this group forces its institutions to enact laws
            to implement these actions (think abolition and suffrage)
      3) the new laws coerce the behavior that implements the new civilization.