I just finished a book by Edward Gibbons called The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
It was written in 1788 but some of his ideas about the empire are similar to the the current struggles we face in the United States. It's in 3 volumes so I "fast read" in a few areas but it is so interesting. He listed five reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire. If you make the comparison, it is little unsettling.
1) The undermining of the dignity and the sanctity of the home. Which is the basis of human society.
2) Higher and higher taxes: the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3) The mad craze for pleasure, with sports and plays becoming more exciting, more brutal and eventually more immoral.
4) The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within---the decay of individual responsibility.
5) The decay of religion, whose leaders lost touch with life and their power to guide.

It made me think...how about you?