Perhaps this is what he had in mind:
descent
noun
1. the act, process, or fact of descending.
2. a downward inclination or slope.
Synonyms:
1. falling, sinking. 2. decline, grade, declivity. 4. ancestry, parentage. 6. assault, foray.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/descent
Of course, it was a typo. It’s just that the typo got spread all over cyberspace, illustrating how dangerous it is to take what you read on the web as true. One typo (not in this case) can completely alter the sense of a statement.
The author of the origianl is Russian. There are other English errors. It was not the English, but the clear vision of what is going on in America that was the point.
How would you do rewriting it in Russian?
Hank