The state of perpetually growing debt is a relatively new invention. In 1776 the US government accrued credit debt, and over the next couple decades ended up accumulating additional debt paying off the loans of the different states that have joined the union. On January 8, 1835, president Andrew Jackson paid off the entire national debt. The United States civil war resulted in a very large Federal debt, and over the next 47 years paid off 55% of that debt. A large debt was accrued during world war 1, and eventually 36% of that debt was paid off prior to world war II. From 1945 to 1949, the federal government paid back about six billion dollars of the massive debts that it had accrued. By that time there was a lot of inflation going on so from 1950s onwards the inflation adjusted value of the debt shrank but the real value of the debt grew until the 1970s when it started to grow in inflation adjusted terms again. There's one year in 2000 when there was a budget surplus, but since 2000 it's basically been rushing from crisis to crisis running up dangerously high debts the whole way.

Government policy since 2001 has not been sustainable and is not sustainable, but in 2001 the federal debt was equal to roughly 55% of the US economy, and now it is worth approximately 125% of the US economy. This path wasn't sustainable 20 years ago, but it's not sustainable in the short term the way things are going. The bridge is out ahead, it's a long way down from here.