AI Is Pulling the Plug on America’s Institutions — The Fourth Turning Just Hit Fast-Forward

The headlines gush about AI folding laundry, writing emails, or dreaming up recipes. Silicon Valley sells us the sizzle — not the burn. But beneath the spectacle, something deeper is happening: AI is dismantling the institutions we’ve been told are permanent. Strauss and Howe, in The Fourth Turning, described these periods as eras of “creative destruction” — moments when bloated systems collapse so something new can emerge. AI didn’t create the crisis, but it’s the spark accelerating the blaze. Corporate America: Drowning in AI Slop For a century, corporations thrived on centralization and hierarchy. Recruiters screened résumés, middle managers enforced procedure, and executives barked orders from the top. That model is dying. Today, one job posting can trigger 2,000 AI-generated…