I've never quite understood what it was about the life and culture that made it so weak it couldn't self sustain? How exactly did the north destroy a culture? Frankly, I think much of what passes for this nostalgic view of the south is pure myth.
In a word, taxes. That and import/export policy. The south was rural and agricultural, the north was much more industrial, even in 1860. Thus policies that favored industry over agriculture hurt the South and forced it to change it's ways.
The main reason the south lost was because they were not as industrialized as the north, and because they had a much smaller population, in part because of all the immigrants, many of whom were employed in that industry. The plains states were not much of a factor, as they were barely beginning to be settled at that time, and were still considered to be part of the Great American Desert, not suitable for agriculture. In part because of the drought cycle which was at it's peak when the area was first explored, and in part because people thought grasslands had less rich soil than forests. (In reality the opposite is true, but it's especially not the case when the grassland is the American Great Plains, a legacy of the last ice age).
It didn't. That process started with modern schools.
When nearly everything was destroyed by the Northern Army, then the Southern way of life was destroyed, too.
do you actually believe ANY of that bilge, OR do you hope SOMEONE else here is that dumb???
free dixie,sw