Authoritarianism is the default path, though for the US I think civil war is a likely potential alternative. Unfortunately I don't see any happy alternative paths, leviathan can either be painfully deconstructed (not likely) or catastrophically imploded (more likely). This is why I see value in parallel decentralized systems already being in place, they can facilitate a shift away from the authoritarian system even as it the catastrophic part of the collapse is in progress.