Jack of Harts

One historical note of relevance is that the American federal government never truly dissolved. There was always someone claiming the Presidency, though historians do not typically recognize the non-elected Presidents of the time. There was a Congress, though its majority was selected via proven widespread voter fraud and there was widespread protests against the Impeachments of the final elected Presidents. And there was a Supreme Court, though the Post-Impeachment Presidents packed it with friendly judges to secure friendly rulings. The important point is that there was always a federal government claiming legitimacy in Washington D.C. But both a majority of Americans and the American States considered it illegitimate, and when it lost the power of the purse that federal spending had once guaranteed, it fell into irrelevancy. The bureaucracies and federal law enforcement agencies came apart without funding and the willingness of local jurisdictions to work with them. And when the non-elected Presidents attempted to mobilize a military whose funding they had already looted to fund their social goals, they found little remained of the once vast American military machine that would still answer their call.