Chinese leaders see America as "decadent, hollow, and in rapid decline", and speeches such as Rubio's "the temper tantrums of the dying throes of a once great power".
Do you think the people in that room had even a moment of uncomfortable selfawareness, or did they just double down on copium?
I think a better way to look at historical change isn't through an either/or situation between rapid change and slow gradual erosion, but through the idea of Punctuated Equilibrium. And I think there are a lot of things lining up right now to suggest that the US is nearing a punctuation.
Once again... “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” - Lenin