system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: will we ever see the national debt start going down or will it keep raising forever?
gpt
We'll likely see the national debt fluctuate up and down as this century goes on.  The American economy is pretty robust and very very good at generating income.  Without multi-trillion dollar wars to fight, and [hopefully] an upcoming rationalization of our economic, tax and social policies the debt will start to drift downwards.

However, it will almost certainly never go away.  

This may sound wacky but - America's national debt is the chain that binds the rest of the world to America.

So long as the US continues to be THE place to invest money at a risk free rate (ie US Treasuries) the entire world has a vested interest in the US continuing to operate productively.  In other words, the rest of the world NEEDS the US to be successful or their own economies will suffer.  They need America to keep spending money, because America's economy is the beating heart that is pumping all the blood (re: dollars) through the rest of the world.

As an example, China's growth is impossible without billions of dollars of US money flowing into the country. That money is so critical that they loan that money back to us at pathetically small interest rates so we can keep buying.

The US is living in the best possible situation - we have the close to unlimited funds... and the appetite to match.