I am not sure what is there to wonder about. Change has always been possible. It's the elites in power who are conservative, claiming that there is no alternative, they want to (for the most part) keep their position.

It's funny to read that Hayek compared parts of the economy to organs. I often use analogy of money being blood in human body, to illustrate that from the perspective of each individual cell, blood is a resource, but from the perspective of the whole body, blood is just a transport medium of which it can create any amount required.

And accordingly, body can decide to vasoconstrict (shut down) certain organs in times of crisis. It is a collective decision, not a decision of an individual cell.

So of course, you can shut down parts of the economy. You can also put those people in parts that shut down on a kind of helicopter money support. All those things have always been possible, it's just people were conditioned to think they are not.