The economy died about 10 years ago, IMHO. It has been kept animated by undead, er, below-market interest rates. What you are seeing isn't anything dying - that already happened. What you are seeing is the magic and the trickery used to keep it moving, all of that is coming apart.

Part of it may be that they wanted to pull the plug on it too. It's hard to say whether it's malice or stupidity with the bureaucrats. But just like Moscow ran the soviet economy, the Murican economy is run from DC.