It likely won't come to that. DC will just run out of money to do anything, either by default of interest payments sucking all the tax dollars up. Then the states will have to act.
We may even remain a de facto country, but there will be nations within nations at that point. Coalitions or confederacies, call them what you will.
THESE United States originally were a Federation of Sovereign States, each possessing a governor, Secretary of State, treasury, Militia (army), etc. The purpose of the Federal Government was to provide for the common defense, coin money, keep the post roads open, and be an arbiter of disputes between the states. We did not have a National Government until after the War Between the States.
We may be able to revert to the idea of Sovereign States, but will more likely balkanize into smaller federations based on trade and mutual issues and resources. The monkey wrench in all that comes from the existence of an outside body which has been lent legitimacy in practice and precedent despite out Constitution, and the possibility of foreign intervention into those affairs based on their 'national interests' (like the billion dollar paper products mill the Chinese are putting in Arkansas.
By selling off interests in this country to foreign investors we sell them the presumed right to defend those interests, and the key to the gates to engage in warfare to defend them---as we have done in interventionist wars since WWII.
That is the greatest danger, in that those States would possibly have to fight another national government, and possibly our own at the same time. They would not be able to count on the military resources of the United States.
