I have no idea what point you are trying to make here. All I can see is an example of good economic policies, when coupled with bad currency policies, not being destined to produce economic prosperity. And I'm not sure you are getting good information here, as you'll have to show the work behind the suggestion that we have experienced "cutbacks in social services." The whole dismal dynamic you are lamenting here is driven by the unsustainable growth in government spending that arises from an empire's inevitable quest to maintain its international power through military strength at the same time it is attempting to placate the masses with ever more (prosperity destroying) wealth redistribution. At some point in that process, sound money becomes inconsistent with the self serving goals of the messianic elites in government, who become convinced that it is THEY who are the font of all prosperity throughout the empire, rather than the private sector wealth creators whose good money they keep throwing after bad in an endless quest to prove themselves correct, thereby driving the real wealth creators to, well, create less wealth to be confiscated and squandered by the political and bureaucratic class intent on using it to promote the cruel illusion that it is they, and not the private sector, that is "creating" wealth, rather than merely "redistributing" it. Eventually, the "consuming" outstrips the "production," making it impossible to maintain the sound money peg; and, at that point, the whole crapload starts swirling around in the bowl, until economic gravity completes the economic flushing process.
