The end of citizen-soldiers, i.e., the end of the conscript military. That forces literally everything else. The problem now - that no one wants to talk about

The end of citizen-soldiers, i.e., the end of the conscript military. That forces literally everything else. The problem now - that no one wants to talk about - is that the gap between conscript-accessible "consumer" technology and current Pentagon wunderwaffe is growing distressingly thin. So, not surprisingly, people are starting to ask WHY a GPS chip costs as much as a house in Kansas. Oh, I know, I know. "They got amazing stuff that's just, like, light-years beyond anything but they can't show YOU". Uh huh. Yeah, my dad knows kung fu, too. For what it's worth, the end of conscription was a mistake. You don't want armed forces composed of 100% full timers, it's bad for your civilization, as a rule. Something like a mandatory youth civil service - say, three years in military, five years otherwise - would be a fantastic thing in today's post-ZIRP transition.