A great thing about autonomy is the ability to quickly solve national problems. Compare and contrast non-EU Iceland and EU Greece. Both came near to collapse due to financial crises. Iceland jailed the bankers and recovered. Greece is in the EU straight-jacket, the corrupt bankers became kings and the people will be in debt bondage for decades.
Brexit is comparable to the Berlin Wall falling. Like the Soviet Union, the technocratic elites could not imagine it collapsing until the people willed it.