Are we really supposed to imagine a future time when Catholics the world over get a happy respite of a couple decades and basically everybody becomes Trad and that none of them remember these wretched days of heresy, apostasy, schisms, and the near total destruction of the Catholic Church and fall for some antichristic deception in mass droves? History cannot pass over the last 65 years of devastation and conflict in silence - no one would ever forget this dark time. Parents would tell their children about it until the end of the world, all the Catholic schools would teach it in their history courses. That is, unless every single one of the millions of books, articles, magazines, and destroyed, and every single person alive who sees and understands the current state of things is dead.
What do you think of Bishop Sanborn's comment, "If this isn't the Great Apostasy - I don't know what is".
You're oversimplifying it. There would be a period of peace, let's say 40-50 years. Then the Holy Emperor dies and his kingdom is split up into 10 kingdoms. Then the decline begins. This could take another 40 years. Then the antichrist comes onto the scene, as a young prodigy and fights battles at a young age, say 18. (The Church Fathers say that the antichrist will be a military genius at a young age).
The 10 kings start bickering with one another, the world becomes more lax, the previous religious fervor declines. The antichrist doesn't come into power until age 30 (to mock Our Lord). So from age 18-30 there are political skirmishes as the 10 kings jockey for power.
40 years of peace.
40 years of post-peace, moral decline.
12 years of war, with a young pre-antichrist winning battles.
52 years later, the antichrist gains power.
Very reasonable. It's been roughly 50 years since the end of the Vietnam war. It's been a longer time since V2. What young adult in their 20s or 30s even CARES about V2 or Vietnam? What adults in their 40s or 50s care about Vietnam? They weren't alive. Same for V2.
I think you underestimate the power of time and the short attention-span of the avg human being.