I think the West is failing in the sense that living standards are on a downwards trend for the majority and political deadlock will prevent any of the necessary reforms to pull it out of tailspin. The Western economies mostly never recovered from 2008 and the twin shocks of COVID and backfiring sanctions against Russia are bringing the collective West to an inflection point where the rest of the world is no longer scared of it.
That is not to say that the West can't do a lot of damage on the way down, or cruise for decades on inertia. Kind of like how Tsarist Russia was still able to trade punches with Germany for a couple of years despite being rotten to the core.
I think the West is failing in the sense that living standards are on a downwards trend for the majority and political deadlock will prevent any of the necessary reforms to pull it out of tailspin. The Western economies mostly never recovered from 2008 and the twin shocks of COVID and backfiring sanctions against Russia are bringing the collective West to an inflection point where the rest of the world is no longer scared of it.
That is not to say that the West can't do a lot of damage on the way down, or cruise for decades on inertia. Kind of like how Tsarist Russia was still able to trade punches with Germany for a couple of years despite being rotten to the core.