Didn't the Soviet Union splinter both from the insane foreign war and the colossal corporations and bureaucracies? After many years, there just didn't seem to be a center that was devoted to its survival. Goodness knows there were many millions devoted to its failure. Maybe it was the final push of the refugees from the Middle East flooding the borders that terrorized the populace into changing the vote from stay to go. 
And personally, I mourn our War of Independence. We could be Canada now, or Australia, with national health care and a lack of a need to be the world's police force. Sure King George was a failure as a human being, but England would have abolished slavery way sooner than 1865. England would have been able to push back against the slave holders like Jefferson and Madison.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene