So recovery from the collapse is likely to turn into a long hard slog.
And at the moment, the collapse looks likely to turn disorderly quickly.
It was not quite game over but it would have taken a collapse from Glasgow to turn it around.
We're this way because it's all too easy, in a pang of hunger and collapse of resolve, to turn a blind eye to the toll.
The 2008 banking collapse forced Iceland to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help and sent its currency, the krona, plunging as much as 80 percent against the euro in the offshore market.
However, a second-half collapse allowed Cologne to turn the game on its head and goals from Marcel Risse, Milos Jojic and Anthony Modeste earned them a win which should be enough to secure their place in the top flight next season.
Bulls chairman Hood admits that the recent collapse of plans to turn Odsal into a sporting village was a factor behind the decision to look for a buyer and that the sale to the RFL would enable the club to face the future with confidence.
So the best bet is that the Americans and their allies will continue to ration cannily their support to the armed rebels, giving them enough to keep afloat and prevent a collapse, but not to turn the tide decisively against the regime.
What thus became a fiduciary currency held up not too badly until the 260s, when confidence collapsed and people rushed to turn the money they had into goods of real value.
So often has the power-sharing arrangement in Northern Ireland teetered on the brink of collapse that the temptation is to turn a blind eye until the threat is either averted or comes to pass.
