To expand more, I think the most interesting part of it all is that this cyclical behavior is becoming more and more globally synchronized. So whereas a few hundred years ago one country could be having a golden age, while another is in chaos... in 2020 everything is so unified that all the fates of the major countries are tied together economically, so these boom/bust cycles are global, and I imagine this trend will only increase. It might sound odd, but it honestly seems like the only possible counterbalance to this unifying trend over the long term would be for humans to inhabit planets or moons other than Earth. But humanity's cycles of revolutions and golden ages will become more and more unified as the Earth becomes a "smaller" place because of improved transportation and information transmission. I imagine world governments will eventually settle in to a global duopoly, like in the book 1984.