The world is going through more than just economic turmoil. It is a world-order crisis, and depending on one’s point of view, the sad end or good riddance to an era. Pax Americana has come crashing down after more than 60 years.

The economic system has always been about trust. But after the world abandoned the gold standard, government guarantees became the key bulwark and the global economy began depending on far more nebulous and interconnected mechanisms. Order was supposed to be implied, and the lone remaining superpower was to act like the world’s sheriff and maintain that order. But the world’s shaken trust in the U.S. has led to shaken trust in the economy.

Globalization was meant to smooth the way among previously warring nations. And for about two decades it created an incongruous situation, because in many ways globalization was tantamount to Americanization. This followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which was presumed to further the influence of the victor.

But an imbalance emerged that was transparent everywhere, even in countries that were officially at odds with the U.S., or even its enemies. Everywhere, the business community, the upper middle class, and the oligarchies viewed and loved the U.S., overtly or clandestinely, as the Mecca of modernity, innovation, and economic prowess. Pitted against that view was the bulk of the world’s population, denied the benefits of economic growth. A modern proletariat could not possibly celebrate America’s successes and sought other venues for inspiration, such as religious fundamentalism or the lure of populist leaders like Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chávez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Populism was supposed to be a relic of the failed past. That it has resurfaced is a sign of our troubled times.

The world is witnessing nothing short of the fall of an empire and it was the ignominious fate of George W. Bush to be the modern manifestation of Nero. The analogues are striking: a leader, not particularly gifted intellectually, fiddling while his domain burns and insisting that all is fine.

The signs of America’s collapse were there for everyone to see. The problem with the war in Iraq was not whether the U.S. had the right pretext for invasion, whether it lied about weapons of mass destruction, or whether there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11. The problem was how the U.S. fought the war, allowing it to linger without resolution, timid, afraid of casualties, with half a desire to scare the world and half a desire to please it. The U.S. has failed in Iraq because it inspired neither fear nor admiration, a predicament unbefitting an empire. Whether America’s war in Iraq was a good idea or a bad one, the weakness it showed is bound to have far wider implications.

Access to energy sources has proven that in the modern world they are the national trait that separates rich from poor countries. The U.S., unsure about how to deal with its own resources, lacking a national direction, has become increasingly dependent on countries that, sensing vulnerability, have embarked on perhaps the most reckless path in memory.

And there should be no question that the rhetoric about anthropogenic global warming was a full attack on the U.S. and its lifestyle, fomented by the world’s intelligentsia. It does not really matter whether there is a link between observed global climate change and the production of carbon dioxide. It has been mostly a political argument and the target is impossible to hide.

America’s decline was accelerated from within, again not unlike Rome’s. Al Gore, an eminently boring and mediocre politician, became an international hero, winning a Nobel and an Oscar for championing what essentially meant the lessening of the country he had once expressed a desire to lead. Barack Obama, an untested newcomer who under normal circumstances would be unelectable, has become the president-elect of the U.S. By some estimates, 80 percent of Europeans and 90 percent of the rest of the world prefer Obama over John McCain. How Obama will restore America’s power did not appear to be part of his campaign or even a desired goal of his presidency.

The old adage goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” The uncertainty in world leadership is bringing about a crisis with no end in sight. Its resolution can no longer be the revamping of economic trust, a hard thing to achieve in any case. There is a need for a new world order, a need that will prove to be nothing short of excruciating.