If one goes by how the population demographics have arranged themselves it is pretty obvious that decadence is either winning or has won. Vitality hasn't figured out that it is losing or lost, though, and vainly struggles on in smaller and smaller puddles.
Since this series was made in 1973, close to the zenith of the "free love" era and not terribly long after Woodstock's excesses and then Altamont's depravity (not to mention the Vietnam war, the Munich massacre and so many other horrors), I suppose it seemed like the end was near. Perhaps the sickness that we believe to be advanced to near terminal state is, unbelievably, not quite as far along as it seems. Perhaps, the body of liberty has another several decades left before it flatlines. Hard to believe based on what we are experiencing but inertia is a powerful force.
