Scott, something caught my attention, amongst your excellent appraisal, it was the mention of something that changed in 1978, there was indeed some changes to political directions, but to me, those changes happened in response to something, you can probably guess I will say it was about energy.
This was about when availability of energy for profit peaked.
It was from that point onwards when we started to climb a hill, what I've modeled (per my training in the arms and aerospace industry as a model based systems Engineer working now with ChatGPT! ), the torque converter of humanity operating for profit began to waste energy, putting some energy towards maintaining profitability, in vain, because the underlying physical problem of energy requiring more and more work to be put in for less and less out, can't be changed, it is quite simply energy resources running out. This doesn't just mean oil, though that is the most obvious energy resource, it means also food, water, in fact life, the life we live on, it's all energy "Resources" , things created by nature using sunlight.
ChatGPT even plots the curve using a torque converter equation that it devises when we let it. The curve is availability of energy, there is none lost whilst availability approaches maximum, but after maximum is passed, energy starts to be lost to the effort required to try to maintain profit margins, returning shareholder demands etc, and now more recently with the ridiculous suggestions of how to manage CO2, always at more profit of course.
This problem goes all the way through industry now, every business is struggling to maintain overheads which generally don't shrink much, whilst raw product availability is literally disappearing. How long will fish stocks last now we are more or less eating the baby fish, calling them adults, etc.
This just scratches the surface of what is a very deep ocean of energy usage, we really have arrived at a biblical time of miracles, and miracles required to change things that seem unchangeable.
We've had a few miracles but not recognised or taken advantage of them yet.
The first one was when oil prices went negative.
Little did we realise that was what was needed to kill the massive power of oil, the secret was free money issue, hence why I say now we have to start issuing permanent solar indexed stimulus, to align with moving to solar energy, which is coming in, despite us not valuing it correctly so far by issue of said stimulus.
The trouble is those in power almost lost control because the value of their capital, that they made and pulled the ladder up behind them like you pointed out, plunged in value.
Just for a moment, we saw no need to save, we thought the free money would be forever, because the value of money was going up, why not keep issuing it, but those sitting on capital almost lost the value of that capital.
Anyhow, the perpetrator Trump was cancelled, and here we are now with the world almost at war over oil, and the planet already burning from temperature rise.
The solution for all of it, is to just go with solar, use it to produce enough hydrogen to replace the fossil fuels needed by all aerospace, empower people in all communities with solar indexed stimulus in the first place to go solar backed by hydrogen, making sure everyone is well informed of the basics on how to do that, and let us finally start creating, as a species.
Now you might see why I write in Medium, this is what it has become for me, a quest to try to get more folk to understand the energy problem and the only solution it dictates.
I know with you I am probably just preaching to the converted, I know but can't help it!