No argument from me!
The fact is that the republic has been undermined from the beginning but it was Lincoln who finally threw it onto the ash heap of history and converted it to the mercantile empire we now “enjoy”.
I would say Lincoln through us toward the ash heap of history and that we landed there somewhere during FDR. Before Lincoln, things could have been stopped by good individuals. After Lincoln, leadership that was very good have turned things around. After FDR one would need leadership of a quality rarely seen in a fallen world. And after LBJ and Nixon it is a question of how long, not if. The how long could have been a lot longer though.