Your article made me pause and think. The American prosperity has been getting worse very gradually. The average American has tried to keep up by amassing tons of debt and living paycheck to paycheck. The average American lives well beyond their means beacuse they feel entitled. At some point, the situation becomes unstainable.
As you described the situation will be unstainable bat different points for different people. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg with the current furloughed government employees.
I have a friend that recently moved to the US from South Africa. The stories she tells are quite frightening, involving that country’s slide into collapse where the country is unable to feed itself and the poor have taken to violence. It all happened very gradually. She said she woke up one day and realized how dire the situation truly was for her family.
I could see this situation happening in sectors of the US and spreading. In fact, I would suggest that it has already started to happen in some of our urban centers. Like my South African friend, I recognized a situation occurring in cities, such as Philadelphia. The murder rate has risen in Philadelphia. The schools continue to get more dangerous and unsafe. The poverty level in Philadelphia is unreal. This gradual economic collapse has made cities, like Philly, a tempest of turmoil. Philly is a powderkeg. We are just waiting for the right variables to make it explode.
Unfortunately, I agree with your article that the rest of the US is in this gradual downward spiral.