The seeds of this collapse started in the 60s. I suspect the nation will break apart at some point in the near future. Certainly anyone under 35 will live to see this come about.
The seeds of this collapse started in the 1890s.
In this particular instance, it started when Congress enacted the Federal Lands and Policy Management Act of 1976.
The first battle in the Sage Brush rebellion was with Wayne Hage when he bought the Pine Creek Ranch in 1978, which was around 7000 acres that he owned and grazing rights on another 750,000 acres of BLM land. I don't recall the numbers but Bundy owns a few hundred acres and leases tens of thounsand acres.
But you are right about the 60s, because that is when Congress first began enacting laws dealing with land, water, and pollution. The Land and Water Conservation Fund was in the 60s as was Wild & Scenic Rivers. But the 70s was when most of them were enacted. NEPA, Clean Water, Clean Air, & Endangered Species to name a few. It was in that same time period that dam building was sharply curtailed. The Ah Pah dam in northern CA was rejected as was the two additional dams on the Colorado River.
Bundy's problem arose over the endangered specie, desert tortoise and came to a head when he moved his stock on to Lake Mead Recreation Area to graze.
It was all co-ordinated to draw attention to the movement in all the western states claiming ownership of these federal lands
I agree. The division in this country is too great to heal. There is no way. At some point half of us are going to pull away from the other half. IMO it may be precipitated by the coming economic crash.