An interesting article, Cameron Leckie. I think your 4 defence strategies are sensible, but clearly if the US does collapse and takes the rest of the so called 'first' world with it, we will need to address the whole question of money and banking, and international trade.
Nothing could provide stronger evidence that the current system just is not viable.
In a post peak oil world, international trade will drop to a trickle; and the idea that it is cheaper for one country to manufacture goods for the rest of the world will be shown for the absurdity it is.
Reliable renewable energy supplies, rather than a cheap labour force will determine where goods are manufactured.

Unfortunately for all of us this will probably be the case, especially if "business as usual" continues.

Then again the USA would have sooner or later collapsed under the weight of its own delusions.

There are dozens of books etc out there which chronicle or describe the reasons why this collapse is inevitable.

Three of my favorites are:
Dark Ages America by Morris Berman
Idiot America by Charles Pierce
The Man Who Sold the World: The Betrayal of Main Street America

These 3 books all point to the Reagan years as to when the rot really set in, culminating in George W Bush--the village idiot from Texas, the hanging/executing governor

Plus I also like the gadfly understanding offered by James Howard Kunstler

Plus 2 authors who offer a meta-history of the present moment.

William Irwin Thompson via Coming Into Being
Richard Grossinger via The Bardo of the Waking Life

(1)The level at which oil production peaks depends on what consumers are prepared to pay per litre of petrol, there's plenty of oil out there in tar sands,shale etc.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427375.900-extreme-oil-scraping-the-bottom-of-earth-barrell.html

(2) The US is a democracy the chances of it collapsing in the manner of a rigid totalitarian society such as the USSR are very small indeed.

(3) I agree with the author's comments in regard to debt levels,particularly private debt,however what are the prospects of convincing the voters to reduce debt, they think the real estate boom has made them rich?

Good article - and it is common sense. Those 4 steps (Decouple from the global economy; Reduce debt levels; Forget about Emission Trading Schemes; Reduce oil dependency) are good and healthy things to do regardless of what happens or does not happen in America.

At least some people are thinking in the real world.The US $ will collapse and that will be a shock to the entire planet.Bernanke is churning out more counterfeit money which will eventually reach the real market economy and doing more of the same will bring on hyper-inflation.

Obama is insane.The USA has defence forces 13 times greater than their nearest rival and still he is increasing defence spending and expanding the war front.They cannot afford to run 700 bases around the planet.

My greatest fear is that they will create more wars to pay for their economic stupidity and unite the home front under a more totalitarian regieme.

If you are wrong about the US - and I believe you are - the policy prescriptions you suggest would be disastrous for Australia. The decoupling would reduce our standard of living substantially.
So what you are suggesting is a very large gamble, based on some forecasts of the future. Forecasts of this kind are notoriously unreliable so I doubt that anyone in a position of responsibility would want to do what you suggest.