How different is Western Europe's saecular timeline?

[SomeGuy]

(12-21-2016, 03:10 PM) pid=\15752' Wrote:

Quote:One thing I notice is, that the American High was a great climax of prosperity and power for the USA. No nation has experienced anything like it. Things may seem calmer than during the earlier 4Ts whose decisions and achievements prepared the way for this "American Century" and "American High." That's because we are still basking to some degree in that success. And we may be spoiled by it. But people don't feel as desperate as they did in previous Crises, because we are still the number 1 economy and military in the world. We have less to fret about, so our Crisis may be milder-- like the British Crises which the new poster talked about above. We are now in the position Britain was then, and so we could suffer less during this 4T.

Pretty much this.  This is not to say that things couldn't get much worse (war with Russia, China, race war here at home, or what have you), in the same way that Britain could have had much more negative experiences during its crises as hegemon, but I don't think that it's a rule that it has to.
I think it is a testament to the institutions and norms built up over time that the financial crisis or the most recent brouhaha over the Electoral College didn't degenerate into something much uglier.  How it turns out in the future remains to be seen.