Sir John Glubb in his classic THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL explains how falling empires are characterized by:
(f) Decadence is due to:
Too long a period of wealth and power
Selfishness
Love of money
The loss of a sense of duty.
Fate of Empires (uncw.edu) (Page 24)
Historian and commentator Victor Davis Hanson seems to think that this country is approaching such a fall:
"We can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies."
So shrugged the ancient historian Livy (59 B.C.-17 A.D.) of the long decline of Roman national character that, in his age, finally ended the Roman Republic.
Like a patient whose medicine proves worse than the disease, Livy lamented that the Romans knew that they had become corrupt and lawless.
But the very contemplation of the hard medicine needed for restoration -- and the furious reaction that would meet the remedy -- made it impossible to save the patient.
America is nearing such an impasse.