I watched a pretty interesting video last night on Youtube about the ebbs and flows of the world order. It highlighted some things as far back as ancient rome, but mostly focused on european empires beginning with the dutch. All off the world No. 1s were eventually unseated, usually after a war, but sometimes peacefully, and almost all of them were experiencing basically the same situation the US is experiencing now: debt bubbles & big wealth gaps, debt busts and big downturns (we're bandaging these), printing lots of money and credit, revolutions, wars, debt and political upheaval/restructuring.
This always occurs while an emerging power is rising to the top. It doesn't seem like there is any slowing down China, and our fall seems on the horizon. Just going back thru the 1400s or so, the Dutch, French, Brits, etc. all experienced the same thing and learned to cope and survive in their role of reduced power. Can we do the same thing? Will we be willing?
The whole thing was put together by some billionaire investor and macroeconomics dude named Ray Dalio. He's using the video to push a book of the same name.
The video is below: