I'm not any kind of historian. Reading the works of those who are, is mind boggling. There is just so much history out there. 60 years of civil war, with heavy conscription...hard to imagine. Although future historians might look at our recent era as 80 some years of war, counting wwi-ussr dissolution.
Probably an interesting bit of the discussion about the US will be the switch in perception from the conscript to all-volunteer army, and the ability to absorb small constant wars without most of us civilians actually noticing much, except for the slightly worse tax:services trade.
It did have cultural impact though and the impending attempt to outsource the army for greencards very much reminds of the germanic legions of the roman army.
The increasing dependence of line soldiers on centralised professional and organisational support to wage war suggests to me that the “new emperors in the provinces” problem won’t repeat in quite the same way.
My take-away is that the phrase didn't mean decadence but rather a return to normal life and the end of the civil wars.