The only real benefit Americans have that will keep the empire flowing longer is abject apathy from its population. About half of that apathy is from people who generally just don't care, and the other half is from people so badly educated that they think they know much more about what's going on than they ever will. For much of the 20th century, television acted as the opium to keep us complacent. Social media is filling that void now, although I suspect it's also making people a lot angrier, even if they don't understand why they're angry. We're doing everything to keep people from interacting with each other in positive ways, and instead we're replacing it with avenues that cause anger and distrust. Meanwhile, we keep thinking we're continuing to advance and thrive because three people have more wealth than the world has ever seen. We celebrate going to space when it was just those rich people that did, yet somehow we think we're all a part of it, even though any one of them would have their bodyguards throw us out of their presence if we ever came close enough.