[pessimizer]

> It has experienced this before, sometimes devolving into outright civil war, without actually reaching death.

That's not really enough to establish a pattern, though. People in China have furniture older than the United States.

> But as long as people say, as you do, "it isn't the thing that caused the problem that is the problem, it is some fancy gadget that is the problem", then you will be unable to solve the problems

This is victim blaming. US citizens get no say in governance:

"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens"

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...