Old Line Science Fiction authors.

 H Beam Piper wrote “Space Viking” way back in 1963. I reread it the other day; Lucas Trask is the Vice Roy ruling a frontier planet on the edge of the old Terran Federation.  The Federation crashed centuries before and many of its planets reverted to a pre industrial medieval state.  Trask has decided to make Tanith a base for Space Viking.  This means getting native workers to do the heavy lifting clearing wreckage from the long abandoned space port, suppressing banditry, establishing a planetary government and so on. 

  Somewhat later in the story Trask meets up with planet Marduk.  Marduk is fully civilized, it maintained its civilization even as the Federation fell.  Anyhow Lucas Trask is discussing problems keeping civilization going with a member of the royal family of Marduk.  As the discussion goes on, Marduk’s problems sound distressingly similar to the problem we are having in modern day America.  This in a science fiction novel written in 1963, 60 years ago.