You know what really highlights Americas decline for me? The lack of grand infrastructure projects over the last 50+ years. 

I don’t think we could build the Hoover dam today or the Golden Gate Bridge. It would take 30 years and go 900% over budget. 

When you look at empires that have fallen through history, many of them built their most grand structures early in their reign. The great pyramid, the colosseum, the temples of Angkor wat, were all built early in the reign of their respective empires.

Empires ready to fall go rigid first. Just like how a person ages and loses range of motion over time, this country in general is very inflexible and that makes us susceptible to falls. Among many other things of course, but the government doesn’t know how to adapt.