I think whatever bad metric you find (debt to GDP, aging population, hostility to immigration, entitlements) you will find a number of countries "ahead" of us in one or more. I personally think it will take some sort of implosion / crisis in one of them to open our eyes.
In terms of taxes, who is to say what will happen? To me, the best defense is tax diversification. If rates go up, then demand will go down, and my Roth dollars will be more valuable because I can easily deploy them. I have some pre-tax, post-tax (Roth) and taxable: I have them to manage my expenses prior to 59 1/2, but a side effect is that I can adjust to tax changes as need be. (This doesn't mean with no impact to me; it just won't sink me, or at least will hurt me less than others who don't have the flexibility)
As for the debt, though, you aren't thinking like a sovereign country. Unlike a US state or the PIIGS of the EU, the US could pay back all its debt tomorrow: "Hey, Mnuchin. Print up 19 trillion dollars, OK?" That would end our status as the world's reserve currency, but it would be an entirely legal way to resolve the debt. Many countries have done this. Some, multiple times. It would also take any cash we have down the toilet.
(As an aside, an acquaintance from Russia told me about their devaluation in the 90's. Her parents had saved enough to by a dacha for retirement vacations. After the devaluation, it was about enough to buy a 2 liter of Coke)
That's a good reason to keep real assets: real estate, or stocks. Money may go away, but people need food, shelter, etc. So again you can come out of calamity better than your neighbor.
There is a tenant of "modern economic theory" that the debt can keep growing, as long as it doesn't grow faster than GDP. Until someone calls our bluff, though, the status quo continues. What else is the world going to price oil / price gold / hold in reserve? The Euro? RMB? Sterling? Again, the alternatives aren't better, so we stay in our position.