True, but we live relative to the lifespan of an empire. A person born in 1842 in China would have lived only known a falling empire his whole life. A person born in 1945 in America will only know an ascendant one.
The "long run" of our lives are much shorter, we don't wait around to get satisfaction that empires fall or "justice" gets done, however you define that. If we live in the era of one victor over another then that's reality for us.
