The loss of the manufacturing base;

the adoption of a debt ridden finance/rentier economic model;

the huge economic losses caused by political/corporate corruption;

the corruption of ruling elites and corporations that siphon government credits for private gain;

the wholly negative return and the irretrievable opportunity cost of investing national resources in armaments and war;

the shortsighted failure to invest those same resources in industry, innovation and new energy technologies.

How could such a society reap anything but economic, social, political and military failure? Could a different outcome realistically be expected?