Americans celebrate their Independence Day today, the same day their former British overlords go to the polls to replace a highly unpopular government. Queen Elizabeth II was often credited with the "managed decline" of the British empire, but what we are seeing today in many of the countries of the West is more like a mismanaged decline. The political, financial, military and intelligence elite who have guided their countries into this gradual but continual devolution are at a loss. Whatever they do makes the situation worse. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, according to Newton's third law, and voters are starting to fight back, but the elite, true to their nature, are blaming outside forces for both their own failures and the reaction of the people. Queen Elizabeth II accepted her lot in life and gracefully relinquished her country's world dominance. A mismanaged decline of the West by those who don't even recognize it as such is necessarily going to be less elegant.