Empires fall when clowns, nitwits and gangsters enter politics, an area they are least able to have any positive impact. Clowns belong to a circus; nitwits do not qualify to run a country, and gangsters are only capable of robbing the country that it was chosen to guard against in the first place. Adding to that are the 'eunuchs', or those 'advisers' in government, the 'journalists' in MSM and those running the propaganda machine that are contributing to the perceptive decline. Lest we forget, Dynasties in olden China falling into decay were also largely due to the 'eunuchs' interfering with the running of the country and influencing the decision of the emperor.
The USA is showing late symptoms of being run by clowns, nitwits and gangsters, though that has been in constant denial over the last two decades. But the harm had already been done, the swamp is too deep to be drained, the bottom of the barrel has fallen out due to over scraping. Real talents, with lack of monetary support or wealth, are not being given any opportunity to run for office. Perhaps it is the decision of the Deep State to exert better control over fake talents being chosen to run the country, not realizing that those chosen are running the country into the ground.
The USA chose to ignore the danger of outsourcing manufacturing, only looking at the ease of enjoying the fruits of labor of poorer countries and just be content to keep printing toilet papers in exchange. This privilege could not be enjoyed by others like China, and its manufacturing buildup is not a choice, but a necessity. The rest is history. Yet, the USA is now turning the narrative into one of China stealing USA jobs, jobs that the USA probably do not think necessary to retain in the face of its privilege of just being able to continue printing and enjoying. Moreover, it has now been exposed by Tim Cook that China's edge in manufacturing is not due to its cheap 'slave labor', a point constantly narrated, but its use of automation and robotics, its skilled workers and it's employment of 'economies of scale' to cut down cost, especially fixed cost attributed to land, factory and machinery. A huge domestic market is very important for China in this respect with its support for its 'economies of scale'.