Factory Jobs: 3 Million Lost Since 2000 "High-tech industries, where the U.S. is still seen as having the edge, include pharmaceuticals, medical devices and airplanes. But even high-tech industries are facing pressure from imports. The U.S. Business and Industry Council... found that between 1997 and 110 of the 114 U.S. industries it studied had lost ground to imports in the U.S. market." Relative decline implies international disintegration in the long run, i. e. a weakened position of the leading power, the US, as opposed to that of rising powers.
(left: British Grand Fleet 1914; right: USS Stennis and HMS Invincible)