[Intolerant in NJ]

From what I recall in reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire years and years ago, the essential problem was that the society became too fractured, with special interest groups all working against each other to gain their own special advantage - like unions against corporations, academics against the military, leftwing churches against fundamentalists, gays against the boy scouts, etc etc etc.......

[AlbionGirl]

And another point from that series of books, is that the truly best and brightest of the Empire retired to their quarters and their books, and looked only inward.

As a consequence those with the wherewithall (sp?;word?) to pull the Empire from the abyss were AWOL.