In my lifetime Great Britain has gone from a place of preeminence in the world hierarchy, to now one of relative mediocrity. It's all happened quickly. I am unsure of the reasons, but they don't seem to be on your given list of cyclic factors.

Also in my lifetime, we are witnessing the eclipse of the so-called world's leading country, the USA, by China, the world's biggest. And China is not only not a democracy, it also has a low standard of living, with billions of impoverished citizens. Already, the USA seems to have acquiesced to China's dominance.

What cycle is the US in?

- inward self destruction caused by personal overindulgence and corrupt leadership..

The ONLY reason the USSR collapsed was due to bankruptcy, their economy could not support the rate of debt spending .. the USA spent them to death.

Now the USA national debt can not be supported by the USA economy which is collapsing under the weight of the Iraq War and the humongous personal debt of the citizens..

It dosen't take a Financial PHD from Harvard to figure out that debt and bankruptcy drives down the Standard of Living and quality of life !

The USA is well on it's way to becomming a 3rd World Country !!

I hate to say or think it, but our country is becoming a secondary power. Every half-assed despot or dictator who can show his/her countrymen some kind of resistance to the US is playing that card, and it is working for them. We're NOT heroes any more.

Of course comparing Athenian democracy to the American Republic or any other contemporary governmental structure is comparing apples to oranges (or perhaps oranges to grapefruit), but there is no doubt (in my mind) that we are one of our low points in our (U.S.) nation's political development. There will always be those that aim at voting themselves money from the public treasure, manipulate votes, etc., but the example these people set also I think, leads to reactive periods of generosity and altruism. I'm reading Paul Krugman's Conscience of a Liberal at present and as he points out the twenties was another period of a small but greedy upper class manipulating their means for their own best interests to the detriment of the rest and this turned around with Roosevelt and a New Deal that sought to more evenly distribute the wealth. To be a bit Hegelian about this all, I think there are cycles that we go through, but that with each antithesis and new synthesis we also tend towards better systems and better results (even though we know the pendulum will sometimes swing the other way at times). I know there are many wrongs yet to be righted, but even so, we are beginning to treat women and people of color more fairly, the concept of world resources as something to abuse and use up is being questioned and we are (over the hundreds of years) becoming more humane to animals and prisoners. I suspect we will continue to improve with age (until someone accidentally blows us all up, I guess .) :-)

I believe that our general move away from God is having an impact on our beliefs and values (Golden Rule, freedoms, manners, work ethic, education, etc.).

We have lowered the bar on what we expect from our fellow humans. Have you noticed that with all our humanitarian effort, with all our political correctness, we seem to be moving further & further away from those things that made our country great from the beginning?

We have lowered the bar on what we expect from our fellow humans

Judi .. that statement is very descriptive of the bigger picture in the USA.

Descriptively, moving away from (God is one way to encapsulate your next part) .. our beliefs and values (Golden Rule, freedoms, manners, work ethic, education, etic .. contribute to the unraveling of our country.

The decay of ethics and truth have destroyed all great civilizations. The USA is no exception.

Exactly!! And just how many other countries, as a whole, have a belief in the Christian God? -0-