Viewpoint: The time Britain slid into chaos (BBC)
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First was the widening gulf between the social classes, rich and poor. When rich and poor start to live completely different lives this leads (then as now) to the poor opting out of the state. All studies today show that society is happier when the gap between rich and poor is reduced.
Widen it and you affect the group ethos of society, and also the ability to get things done through tax.
In the Roman West real wealth lay more in land and property than in finance (though there were banks) - but in the 300s the big land-owning aristocrats who often had fantastic wealth, contributed much less money than they had in the past to defence and government.
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Gildas talks about right-wing politicians advocating glibly attractive solutions that appealed to the populace while "any leader who seemed more soft, or who was more inclined to actually tell things as they are, was painted as ruinous to the country and everyone directed their contempt towards him".
Gildas also singles out his leaders' sheer ineptitude and bad judgement, recalling some governments and financiers in today's banking crisis.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18159752
It's worth reading more of the comments of Gildas in particular.
This article is in conjunction with an upcoming BBC history program by Michael Wood.
Small correction: The last outpost of the Roman Empire was the Empire of Trebizond, which fell in 1461. So many historians treat the Eastern Roman Empire as if it just disappeared, or only the Western Empire counts ...
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