Decadence (Oxford Dictionary): moral or cultural decline as characterized by excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury.

The whole is no longer
a whole,..

a metaphor for every style
of décadence;
every time anarchy of atoms,
scattering of will, ‘freedom of the individual’,
morally speaking expanded into political theory,
‘equal rights for all’.

life, equal vitality,
the vibration and exuberance of life
pushed back into the smallest structures,
the rest poor in life.

Everywhere paralysis, toil,
stiffness, or enmity and chaos;
both growing ever more obvious…

The whole no longer possesses life at all;
it is put together, calculated, artificial,
an artifact. –

The Wagner Case by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, aphorism 7

In the day of Nietzsche, the late 1800s, the operas of Richard Wagner took Germany by storm.  His music was complex, chromatic, harkening back to mythic roots of a German people. Nietzsche met Wagner in 1868 when he was a young scholar of 23. Wagner was the same age as Nietzsche’s father, who had passed before Nietzsche’s 5th birthday. Nietzsche was enthralled by Wagner’s creative genius, believing that Wagner’s work justified the world and all of its sufferings. For a number of years Nietzsche was a frequent house guest at the Richard and Cosima Wagner’s at Tribschen, a beautiful house beside Lake Lucerne. Nietzsche broke with Wagner in 1876. Nietzsche distrusted the cult of Wagner, and was critical of Wagner’s overbearing egoism, antisemitism, and sympathy for German nationalism. Nietzsche no longer believed Wagner’s music would be the salvation of German culture.

I mention Nietzsche and Wagner as a backdrop to the cult-like movement of Trump. Trump is viewed as a savior who will restore America’s bygone greatness of a patriarchal time. There is a cult like ambience, a mystical theatricality to Trump campaign rallies. Trump captures the deeply held conviction of a segment of Americans that American popular culture is decadent, overripe for redemption. Trump is an icon of political efficiency, a redeemer inclined to translate Christian fundamentalist principles into law. Enthralled by Trump, promoting anti-immigrant, American nativism, and a contagious Christian nihilism, — rules of civility and decency are no longer agreed upon. In paroxysms of invective, time and time again republicans in congress refuse cooperation to meet our collective obligations, – “enmity and chaos, growing ever more obvious”.

Reviewing the quoted words above, I suspect Nietzsche grasped the endgame outlines for a starry- eyed messiah, such as Wagner or a Trump.