Here the great cycle of things turned downward, and Davies's narrative finds its bite. Ironically, what the nation gave Camden it started to take away, as industry and commerce, as opportunities, amenities, and prosperity shifted decisively from countryside to city and from local to regional, national, and even international axes. There was little that peripheral Camden could have done to change the course of things. It was destined to irrelevance. 3 Davies's narrative moves forward with increased passion as he traces Camden's accelerating slide to decline and decadence, which was not unlike that of the majority of 11,897 other small American towns, where only ten percent of the nation's population now resides.
Citizens travel out of town to shop and amuse themselves.
Smaller and traditional rural industries are eclipsed, while retail trade along Main Street disappears in a rising sea of franchises. The railroad ends service to the town. Consolidations and closings overtake town and regional institutions. Even though its population actually grows, the town loses its self-sufficiency. With Main Street's passing go its leaders and a rallying vision of the future.