Reading about the Late Bronze Age Collapse in the Mediterranean, I found this quote:

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"Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again."

When civilization and society get to the breaking point, the collapse is fast, rapid, inevitable, irreversible and a surprise to most.

There were many factors that led to this widespread collapse across many empires nearly concurrently.

One of the theories / factors is "general systems collapse": General systems collapse theory, pioneered by Joseph Tainter hypothesises how social declines in response to complexity may lead to a collapse resulting in simpler forms of society. Other theories point to specialization and complex economic relationships between various civilizations.

It seems many causes were at play simultaneously which gave rise to concerns among those directly impacted, but not to the wider populations. Individual causes were not sufficient to destroy civilization but take as a whole the entire fabric was being destroyed almost imperceptibly.

After the collapse, it's worth having a look at the Greek Dark Ages a period of invasion, pillage, destruction, war, famine, and more.

Similar to the fall of the western Roman Empire.

Both falls follow Glubb's "Fate of Empires".

Modern society and civilization is next, the decay, rot and disintegration are well underway, imperceptible to most, not recognized in their entirety, and those who may see it are not interested or are powerless to do anything about it.

I think we're past the point of no return. What I found most interesting is that from civilization to total collapse, anarchy, start of a dark age of hard patriarchies took only 40-50 years.

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