I believe getting rid of innate alignments was the right choice. The racism might have been why, but the issue I always took with it was the alignments being too broad and ill-defined.
On the other hand, a severe degradation of federal institutions would by necessity promote community-based cooperation. Like in any other disaster, natural or otherwise.
Nobody wants to see it happen this way, but it might be the catalyst we get.
How many times is this just a neuter/spay magic?