Consolidation acceleration

Thought-provoking piece, this. Go read the entire thing:

No longer a jumped-up Canberra or, worse, Sacramento, {Washington D.C.} seems about to emerge as Pyongyang on the Potomac, the undisputed center of national power and influence. As a new president takes over the White House, the United States' capacity for centralization has arguably never been greater. But it's neither Barack Obama's charm nor his intentions that are driving the centrifocal process that's concentrating authority in the capital city. It's the unprecedented collapse of rival centers of power.

This is not new, however, but a culmination of a long trend. Consolidated power is by definition the antithesis of liberty, but every new 'crisis' over the past century or more has resulted in a growth of D.C.'s charter at the expense of one of the other nodes: States, cities, churches, businesses, families, etc. The monolithic Federal State now presents itself as the only functioning power center (having, in many cases, actively undermined the others), and at times it seems the military is the only reliably functioning part of that.

Is there anyone who dares think such a trend will end well?