Sadly, I think it was finished with Bill and Hillary in office. His impeachment and the caving of the Senate to not act on his impeachment. The root of our nation’s collapse is moral and ethical failure of which the political is only a symptom and an inevitable result.
The Clintons brought in the terminal illness (e.g., making oral sex not only acceptable, but a norm for teens), and sadly, Bush didn’t turn it around, but only slowed it down. And for all of Bush’s mistakes, the non-stop venom from the media during his terms success in setting the mindset of our nation was the clincher. Even Reagan never had it as bad as Bush.
Then you add Bush’s conviction that it was beneath the office for him to ever defend himself (unlike Reagan), and the media won......and then built on that victory buy almost single-handedly putting O in office by not vetting O in any way, and making him an object of worship.
The first election of O sealed our fate; the second even more so.
Hillary getting the presidency by default will be the last gasp of freedom in our nation.
Bush allowed himself to become a punching bag for the media. This was a grave mistake (or weakness) for him and the country.