I've got a feeling the whole "advanced" civilisation thing where most people are doing what most people don't need or seldom need is never stable or maintainable long term, the problem is the population has gone beyond the numbers that can be sustained otherwise...

Rome was rather a soft landing, I don't see how it can be for us. 

 And the more they knock out the energy sources from under us, & steal the productivity from everyone, the sooner that's going to be.