Civilizations have risen and fallen in a regular pattern ever since we HAD civilizations. There's a famous journal paper about this, but I forget what it's called.
However, the amount of interconnectedness between discrete societies that we have today has never existed before.
I figure this means that the U.S. won't collapse (at least, not like the Roman Empire collapsed) but it'll gradually be eclipsed by countries that are more resourceful and more... energetic, I suppose, is how I would describe it.
Either that, or we're so interconnected now that if one major society suffers a crisis, then the entire world will follow.
I'd say if any society in the world is going to collapse, like REALLY collapse, it's going to be Mexico. They are a country owned and operated by criminal syndicates. Of course, the wealthy elite in that country have the advantage that they don't have to raise their hand to keep the people down; they can let the drug cartels do that FOR them. Then they throw up their hands and pretend the cartels are too powerful to stop. It's a clever setup, really. Be interesting to see what happens when (and if) it finally fails.
. Car pool to work.
