Good stuff.
I often think of capitalism in the terms of capital formation. Specifically in a micro economic, local sense. The indicators I look for are how much tangible capital is formed in local conditions. I have discontinued looking at capitalism in the macro sense.
Completely agree that what we have is not capitalism and agree that the critical point is when the currency became controlled by a social construct. In the case of the US it was 1913. Most socialist countries only last about 100 years after the currency, and much of the economy is captured by social constructs.
On that scale the US should have fallen in about the year 2013. There are two backstops that have prevented that from happening. The first is holdings as reserve currency by other nations. That section of the economy isn't in direct control of the originating social construct(the fed). The second is somewhat related to the first, in that if hyperinflation is to gain ground, what is needed is the ability to readily double the volume of fiat currency in short amounts of time (doubling every few months, instead of over several years).