passengers on a sinking ship that's the title of a new book by new york sociologist professor richard lachman and i caught up with him to ask him about his book subtitled elite politics and the decline of great powers richard welcome to going underground to tell me about the 1st class passengers in the sinking ship ok well this is a book that tries to explain why it is that the united states is in decline and i do it with historical comparisons to the 2 previous starman and powers britain and the netherlands and in essence what i find is that a leader. able to grab control of not just government resources but government powers and in that way it becomes more and more difficult for governments to make strategic decisions that allocate resources in ways that are needed to maintain global dominance i should say that in range there are whole numbers of empires that get discussed in the book but for you national decline cannot be stopped by just mass organizing no i think where mass organizing matters is what conditions of life will be like after the clyde will elites be able to become wealthier a