Perceptive comments, and far from outlandish speculation - (c). The first thing that came to my mind after the collapse of the USSR was 'there goes the counterbalance. The USA will be next'. I was not thinking then about global society as an ecosystem - but it is.

There is a kind of organic democracy evolving at all times, beyond the reach of leaders. 'Leaders' emerge to fulfill the zeitgeist, rather than the other way round. The evolutionary cycles of societies are measured in hundreds of years. It is why we study history.

The envisaged collapse of the USA, if it happens, will not be an unthinkable one-off event. The same thing has been occuring for thousand of years - all over the world.

You can't be me, I'm taken