Angela Merkel was missing from Davos this year, but the leader's optimistic mantra "we can do this" echoed through the snowy resort in the Swiss Alps.

Beneath the veneer of can-do optimism at the World Economic Forum, however, was a creeping concern that the politicians, diplomats and central bankers who flock each year to this gathering of the global elite are at the mercy of geopolitical and economic forces beyond their control.

Amid the reassuring messages on the refugee crisis, came stark warnings from people like International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde that Europe faced a "make-or-break" moment.

A year later, despite Mario Draghi's assertion that the bank still has "plenty of instruments" at its disposal, the consensus in Davos was that it has now used up all its monetary ammunition and that politicians have failed to use the time the ECB bought them to implement economic reforms at home.

The central theme of this year's meeting was the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" – the idea that technological advances would allow ever greater levels of automation, transforming the global economy in profound ways.

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