Wars, financial failures, taxpayer grumblings, a dissatisfaction with the status quo... I offer my services. Please take my card:
As to the thread title, I'm beginning to wonder if it may be coming far, far sooner than even I anticipated. Five years ago I was saying give it one, maybe two generations. Not that I'm comparing myself to Heinlein or anything, but a lot of the stuff he predicted came around a lot sooner than he thought it would, too.