Gaul Atreides (@gaulatreides)

Agreed, but the primary threat of empire decline and collapse is that it takes the nation with it. History is littered with tragic examples of the founding stocks of various collapsing empires becoming subsumed into racial miscegenation or eliminated by the barbarian overrun. The result is that the nation never quite matches its previous glories, if it doesn't change entirely into something unrecognizable. The good news is that there are also examples of new nations rising from the ashes of empires, birthed into existence by the remnant rural outposts of native stock left untouched by the turmoil in the more populated regions of the former empire.