I've long said that the US is inevitably headed for the same fate as the USSR. In addition to everything you just mentioned, the US has also lost any sense of unified national identity. On paper, the Californian is my countryman, but in reality we share very little in common and the only reason we share a country is because that's the status quo. When things get tough and animosity between regional populations grows, arguments for maintaining the union based on that alone are not particularly compelling for anybody.