Don't forget, things were different in 2000. People were employed, 9/11 hadn't happened yet, things were *normal*.
Also, for most of America, the Internet didn't exist yet, not really.
Now?
It's like an alternate universe, everywhere you go.
The house of cards is on a knife-edge, to mix a metaphor or two.
I think one more screw up by the TPTB, like a stolen election or an illegal amnesty, and there won't be enough clock towers in the nation to accommodate the demand.