Declinism is a hot topic these days, and although the predictions have been so comically off-base in the past, it feels more real this time (just like every time).  Maybe those kooky experts that RT regularly digs up are actually on the vanguard of thought leadership.  David A. Bell has an interesting argument going on in the New Republic:

If we can be certain of anything, it is that some day the United States will indeed cease to exist. “If Sparta and Rome perished, what state can hope to last forever?” asked Rousseau in The Social Contract. The timing, however, is another matter. Why should we assume that we are just now sliding helplessly towards the edge of the cliff?  (…)