Litofsky

As Heinline pointed out, when service to your country becomes either a chore or duty others must carry, you're headed down. When all you have for your defenders is contempt, you are near the bottom. Rome went from the largest citizen army in their era to the lowest in less than two centuries because mercenaries and slave warriors were good enough for such nasty duties.

As for leaders, they cause a lot of the problems. Spending on stupid things (Such as Caligula spending money on parties. The term Bread and Circuses was coined for the last few Emperors of Rome, spending money on gladitorial games and enough bread to sooth but not remove the hunger of the poor.

We entered that stage when Franklin Roosevelt decided to tax the middle class into penury to keep the poor working, something I expect to see repeated in the next few years.