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It's very obvious that 
is circling the drain now, but clearly this didn't just happen in a vacuum. It must've started crumbling at some point... but when?
Some people might say it started after 9/11, others might say it goes back to the Raegan administration. A few might even say it started after losing the Vietnam War, or when they went off the gold standard. Or maybe even earlier...
What do you think? 
The early 1970s marks a downturn of the rate of profit which the US has not been able to escape, only delay through a neoliberal turn, increasing financialisation etc. by and large I feel that the rise and fall of a hegemon can't be overly simplified but if you're gonna go by a quick and dirty rule I think that one suffices.
i was going to say the 70s stagflation nonsense leading towards the hollowing out and outsourcing of american manufacturing but idk I'm ignorant
Part of the reason stag-flation "wasn't supposed to happen" was because it was expected the government would step in and prevent it. Nixon froze grocery prices in response. Can you imagine a president doing that today? Since then, all the blank-check intervention has been on behalf of capitalists, of people who own things for their living.
yeah I know, with the minor exception of emergency covid shit (i.e. the trump bux and enhanced unemployment) the working class has had fucking nothing for decades
tendency for the rate of profit to fall 🙏
I see people here mentioning a lot of good, specific points regarding American decline like the events of 2008 and I would just add to that, that events like those are ultimately downstream of capital's attempts to restore profitability
Agree with this. The post-ww2 period was the height / peak of US power, militarily and economically, and by the 70s it started it's slow decline, esp in manufacturing. They do a lot of things to forestall it, like converting from an industry to finance capital, but you can't keep that up forever.