Yeah, people keep saying it...and we keep proving them wrong.
Now, with the current crop of lameass choices for President we might take a DIP--but eventually we'll pull ourselves out. Another great leader will come to the fore...but Hitlery, Hussein and McLame aren't going to fill the bill.
When I was in graduate school in 1980, the rage was “the zero-sum society” a concept championed by Lester Thurow. His thesis was that America’s decline wa inevtable as the rest of the underdeveloped world improved, as there were only so many esources to go around. It may have seemed that way when Jimmy Carter was president, LoL.