I think direct democracy is the only viable method we have for long-term change.
That having been said, how direct democratic approaches should be implemented is clearly a matter of debate and experimentation. We don't even know what the tradeoffs are yet, let alone how we might rig the system to produce one over another outcome.
I also believe that any viable direct democratic system will still end up having representatives: They will be organic members of the community and recallable at will, but they will still have representative power.