Or, we are just another Empire going the way of all empires...
Wealth and power get built up over time, ego wrapped con men take over the discourse, and the Empire of the people becomes the empire of the rich and powerful. Greece, Rome, Germany, the Soviet Union...I suspect almost all fell from the same human inability to respect the tribe over the supreme leader.
Of course, we are in a time of unimaginable nuclear weapons, of talented media hucksters, of really stupid leaders, so maybe this American Empire is in reality the last Empire. 
But then, maybe I am perhaps being too hasty, maybe Putin's stooge in the White House has something other than disruption and disintegration in mind for America. His choices for his Cabinet sure indicate a willingness to destroy the common to enrich the few though. 
America is being torn apart by white power religious bigots allied to the oligarch class. That is my truth. 

Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon