In terms of economics, the 40’s through the 70’s were the most prosperous times and boom in virtually any empire’s history. It all went downhill in the 80’s with deindustrialization and the explosion of Reaganomics/neoliberalism. For many years now people keep saying “wow, I can’t believe this year was even worse than the last!”, but without realizing that we may be entering terminal failure. It’s a microcosm of the serious problems the west in general is facing, but America is ground zero for the worst of it.