The thing about battered women is sometimes their domineering husbands end up dead under mysterious circumstances.

Of course the only two options aren't "massive economic collapse" or "Union forever". And one doesn't even have to be a student of history to see this: one could simply look South of the border where cartels are the government in certain regions.

If the author can't entertain this possibility it's due to his own lack of imagination, not because it's impossible.