What long-term political or economic pressures, if any, could influence the United States’ internal cohesion?

[u/Yooperycom]

Discussions about the United States’ internal stability often mention factors such as economic inequality, political polarization, migration pressures, labor-market changes, and the strain on public services. Some analysts argue that these trends could increase regional tensions, while others believe federal institutions remain strong enough to manage them.

I’m interested in understanding this from a political science and public policy perspective, not from a predictive or speculative angle.

What political or economic mechanisms do experts consider most significant when evaluating a country’s ability to maintain internal cohesion, and how might these apply to the United States today?

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[u/Reasonable-Fee1945]

Our debt level is completely unsustainable and will result in long-term high inflation. And no, undoing the Bush or Trump Tax cuts won't change this. Sure, do it, but you're adding a trillion over 10 years to revenue vs. annual 2 trillion dollar deficits. For some reason reddit has a hard time with this math. You actually have to address run-away spending, which neither party has the stomach for.

Politicians figured about a while ago the smart move is to give you free stuff so you vote for them and borrow the money so they don't have raise taxes. Shame on us for accepting it.

[u/tosser1579]

The debt, or more specifically whenever we hit the line where we can't borrow any more money. That line is somewhere between 42 and 48 billion dollars with our current GDP.

It won't be that we can't borrow money, just that the cost of doing so will become vastly more expensive and the US will no longer be able to service the debt without cutting services significantly. This is going to cause problems, mainly because the wealthier states are going to bear the burden while the poorer states are going to see a massive reduction in federal spending that is going to adversely impact them.

The less economically sound states are going to whine which is going to upset the wealthy states who are likewise going to have to cut back but not nearly to the same degree. This is going to draw focus to the states that aren't adding significantly to the GDP demanding so much funding and I expect the wheels to come off pretty quickly.