I see this awareness in the wider populace as well, and I think it suggests why my philosophizing on my Mimeograph Revival site is pretty much not contested (granted, most of my commenters are looking for more utilitarian tips, but I get lots of visitors who aren't commenting - and they're reading what I have to say about the need for low-tech printing and duplicating tech and why) - just this week I've been having a conversation with one of my regulars, who's probably in his late 60s, and he's in full agreement that any reliance on centralized/industrial/digital processes is a weakness. He didn't go all out and say "because the empire's collapsing" but simply being aware that those processes and materials aren't going to come back (or if they do last awhile longer than this decade, they'll be too expensive for us common folk) is a telling sign of the extent to which many people know what's going on.

I hear the sounds of a lot of seatbelts being buckled.