> I’ve been wondering more and more lately if it was designed this way by whoever made these decisions at the top level to prevent another cold-war standoff situation.

Indulging in conspiracy at least allows you to pretend that the "top level" had a plan here.

It's much more comforting to think there was a positive intention for the way things turned out, and not just greed and short-sightedness.

Lots of people have written about "the cycles of empires".

> It's much more comforting

This kind of psychologizing can be used to subjectively argue either case.

For example, I could say that it's much more comforting to think that current circumstances are artifacts of greedy fools rather than coordination by malevolent and powerful actors.

> that the "top level" had a plan here

You're also being somewhat reductive here. Sure, entry-level conspiracies rely on an all-powerful council with top-down authority, but there are more nuanced understandings where they can arrive out of alliances of convenience between rival factions.