In the prepping world there were basically 2 schools of thought with 2 major contributors who lived through both scenarios and had lots of good info pertaining to their situations. The first was all out war and its main spokesman was a man named Selco, who survived a siege of his city with just about everything you can remember about an orderly society broken down. The second was Ferfal, who lived through a breakdown of his country. He still had a job, there were still some government services running but the currency was worthless, law and order was nonexistent and you had to scramble to keep afloat. I tend to believe if it all falls apart it will be a breakdown of society as opposed to war, so I set up my knowledge base accordingly. Everything in there is designed to make you more self sufficient. That’s why you have topics on hunting and fishing, fixing your own cars, etc. as well as survival.
I agree with your assessment.
In the event of such a breakdown, the US has one advantage that, according to some of my international friends, is pretty unique. When the government shuts down, we shrug and go on with our lives!
I’m told that in most countries, a shutdown like our government does every other year or so, would result in absolute chaos, possibly anarchy.
I have no idea how accurate that is, but it makes for an interesting contrast.