Is this America's Fate?

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations
has been two hundred years.
These nations have progressed through this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complaceny to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."
-- Sir Alex Fraser Tytler
(1742-1813) Lord Woodhouselee, Scottish jurist, professor and historian