We should never have left the clam shell standard, that was the whole problem.
Empirically, inflation and gold price changes are statistically tenuous to uncorrelated. Thus, had we stayed pegged, it is arguable that gold manipulators would exercise undue control on the US. Parenthetically, if peole dumped financial assets in favor of gold every time since Nixon that some TEOTWAWKI chicken little had his head on fire (while pushing freeze-dried food and newsletter sales), a mass of wealth creation would have been lost.
I understand the historical allure of gold. But if the SHTF, people want food, water, shelter, and ordnance. Look at the past 18 months - TP was more in demand, and maybe booze and coffee as well. Gold will simply be a good paperweight if trouble comes, and there is temporal evidence that gold is being replace by digital currencies as the SHTF storer of value (though I trust that asset less than gold).
Gold isn't bad, but it's not a divine asset.
That said, if Nixon's motivation for floating was political because, among other things, his wage and price controls were fouling up his re-election chances, then getting him for Watergate was like getting Capone for tax evasion.