>Perhaps, though, it is the case that there is no real economic
>decline (YET) but that the ruling class perceives that it is
>over-seeing a decline and loss of power, or at least the potential
>for it, or the imminence of it.
Perhaps, but there's little evidence for this in the places you usually look for it - think pieces in the quality press, journal articles, panels at the Council on Foreign Relations. The last CFR economics panel I went to, on the Fed after Greenspan (featuring Frederic Mishkin, Lawrence Meyer, Susan Phillips, and Benjamin Friedman) was awash in complacency. That provoked some anxious questioning from the "working bourgeoisie" in the audience, worried about the dollar, a credit bubble, etc., but the "thinking bourgeoisie" was largely unmoved. And if the Bush admin were seriously worried about decline, they'd be more anxious about the c/a deficit.
Doug