I really hope it doesn't get ugly, but it could. We are so different than them, I just don't see how we go back to business as usual after this mess.
Seems like we haven't learned anything over the failed regime-change exercises of the past 2 centuries.
Lots of options end in nose-cutting to spite faces, and the winning move starts to look like "don't play" real quick.
What we need to be worried about is if any of these powers start to sliding towards a major decline, right now things are good people have a lot to lose if there is a war; however if the balance of power is too lopsided and one of the sides is at real risk of losing, that's when nations get desperate and start to do things that are dangerous.
World War 1 would've never happened if the the Russian Empire wasn't on the brink of collapse, but Russia felt it had to act because it would slip out of the ranks of influential nations. That is when the tinderbox exploded.
What I fear is that in the next World War, the US is currently looking like Germany, with their fancy tech, their super "intellectual" military doctrine, and their entrenched bureaucracy.
Russia is keeping their armies battle ready and tested in the Ukraine and Crimea, the CCP isn't as battle ready but as Vietnam and Korea proved they still can beat the US. Things are going to be interesting over the next 20 years...