More generally speaking, it seems that the faster society in general changes, the shorter its institutions last - it's like too much baggage and cruft accumulat

More generally speaking, it seems that the faster society in general changes, the shorter its institutions last - it's like too much baggage and cruft accumulate up to the point of breaking. The new generations demand a different way of life, and they want it faster than the old ones. The Roman empire lasted a couple of thousand years, the medieval empires up to a half a century, the British empire a bit more than a a quarter, the American, well, almost a quarter (with a violent change about right about the middle of the period, so...). Interesting times, and all that. I've sometimes thought that the rigidity of the US Constitution (i.e. it's not revised completely ever 50 years) is both its biggest benefit and its weakest side. If only the founding fathers made a clause like "and thou shall revise whatever we've written every 50 years in the light of new facts, because we are just men, and fallible."