[brutusborn]

Ah I see our point of difference, you are thinking of intergenerational change whereas I interpret the quote as multigenerational, societal change.

[SamoyedFurFluff]

If we look multigenerationally, the longest-living nations are still the nations that can maintain a high quality of life the longest. It is frankly nonsensical to say that nations fall because they reached a high point; of course they can only fall if they have someplace to fall from.