And then there is the matter of peak resources (Peak Oil and peak everything else for that matter) the never did beset during previous periods of nations and empires that came and went... and things like climate change and environment disaster, death/extinction of species and the collapse of ecosystems, food chain, etc was never manifested to anywhere near this degree until the last half a century... this also adds a layer of complexity to the calculus when analysis the current trends and winds of macroeconomics/ geopolitics etc...
I believe one example of peak resources could be lumber in Great Britain during the nineteenth century with their need for building more ships for their naval empire. That definitely affected ecosystems of course with basically a collapse in the variety of wildlife in the country.