DoDo:

(T)he realisation of/panic about power loss for the superpower is spreading in the foreign policy elite.

Unfortunately, these geniuses don't seem to grasp the danger to their beloved power posed by the ongoing economic decline and/or collapse. They don't seem to grasp the danger to the ability of the USA to fight a war without a manufacturing sector.

Perhaps their brains are so busy trying to track all of the complex geo-political threats and opportunities that they do not have time or energy to devote to consideration of the implications of the industrial infrastructure eroding from beneath their feet like the sand under the pilings of a Carolina Outer Banks beach house.

In my dreams the Chinese government would buy the "think tanks" for which they work. I wonder if they would feel obliged to resign if that happened.  

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."