I've always appreciated Dan Carlin's line "climbing the ladder in wooden shoes and descending in silk slippers". Post WW2 was the pinnacle of our achievements and we've been coasting since. It's going to take something traumatic to make us hard and capable again or we're going to dry up what we have left and descend into disorder.

It takes hard people to build a functioning society.

I always hoped 9/11 would rejigger us, but I guess it's too late for that.