That's the rub, and since there is practically zero chance that "restoration" is possible, there really is only the final battle to engage. I guess I am generally indifferent as to how we get there, just that we get there with as many resources and allies as possible so that the maximum amount of energy can be directed at the statists. I guess we'll find out.
I am not so pessimistic - I believe Restoration IS possible - actually I am hoping for improvements on the old system that would provide further checks against those who would seek to abuse it. But such restoration cannot occur until the power of the current corrupted one is ended and those who support a system in which the people are considered subjects of the state, to be used, abused, sacrificed or killed for the public good, are killed for the public good.
Luckily reality will do most of that job for us - because reality will end the current system as math and economics make it unsustainable. The number of courses is fairly small
1) WMD is used and only a small portion of US Citizens survive to be ruled over by a Big Brother Technocracy police state
2) Conventional Weapons are used, a Civil war starts, and the cities are put under siege killing most everyone in them via lack of food, water, sanitation, power, fuel and rule of law, leaving the nation in chaos, but in a state were individual locales can declare and maintain independence - and THESE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA may choose to be so again, with local governments again taking the primary role as they did from the beginning - This is actually our best chance for restoration
3) No attempt is made to conquer the American people before or after the crash, and the federal government simply wanes in its power till local governments take up the slack. With no common enemy to fight, the US just continues its decline into a 3rd world country, with the Status Quo of local power basically being Maintained - isolated successions and civil wars. Affairs probably get better over time as the slackers are killed off by reality - no govt can pay them, and street justice becomes the norm, suicide rates go way up-- It basically looks like Greece does now.
In all scenarios the US is left poorer, without the rule of law for a time , and with millions of dead and dying.
I don't see foreign powers wasting resources on us. Its likely China will gain the reserve currency by doing a partial backing of yuan with gold and other commodities. I do not think the IMF and SDR will be seen as a vaild solution by most of the world who will see the IMF as simply another uppity western organization. China will enjoy America as a desperate resource colony for a time, happily throwing us pennies as we harvest our natural resources for them.
If we are very lucky a a new United States with a govt similar to the old will form from the individual locales, and the people set free from the stupid regulations and rules will begin to prosper again, but it would take Decades after the collapse to see anything even approaching our current standard of living. I think there are enough people left who will fight - the American revolution was fought with 3% of the population.. for a proposition to create something new that no one really knew if it were possible.. We, on the other hand, know its possible, and I suspect that will lead more to lay their lives down to gain it for their children.