But not it's scientific ones? That was the usual stumbling block for most folks. :P

As to the social/political/military dynamics . . . it's been a very long time, but as I recall the first story sidestepped the political and military dimension entirely. It concerned the personal tales of two or three sets of friends and relations, in an environment wherein the only information available came through direct experience. As to the social dimension, in each case these people already largely knew each other (which is why they were hanging together); it was only as they met strangers that social dynamics changed in any significant dimension and I think Stirling handled those instances alright.

Now, I'm sure that way off in the background of the novel the Joint Chiefs were trying to organize a military suddenly bereft of all armaments more advanced than bayonets, just as I'm sure that the Secret Service was trying to walk POTUS out of the chaos of Washington DC (or whereever). There may have even been brief God's-eye-view snippets relating such events (I honestly can't remember). But that's not what the immediate story was about, so if those scenes were lacking in believable detail I saw no problem with it.

The implicit assumption was that there were attempts to keep up a semblance of normal authority. In fact, in the later books we do see a few cases where fragments of the old order survived at least in name (such as The United States of Boise). But I had no problem believing that the sheer weight of starving, inappropriately-skilled humanity submerged most such semblances in fairly short order. It is a simple fact that if the modern food distribution system were to suffer a sudden and complete failure, most people in Western society would begin to starve within three days. The chaos resulting from that event - occurring in the total absence of electricity and firearms, taking place in a society wherein we are unlikely to even know the names of our closest neighbors - would overcome all attempts at organization above the familial level.

I remember in particular one scene where the people who would eventually be known as the Bearkillers stumble upon a group of Eaters some months after The Event. One of these cannibals - to judge by the remains of her dress and the briefcase she still carried - was a former executive who continually raved at the armor-clad, sword-weidling, horse-riding proto-Bearkillers: "What happened to the helicopters? Why didn't anyone send the helicopters to save us? WHERE WERE YOU?!!" E.g. most of the people who weren't the novel's protagonists made the mistake of waiting upon others to help them . . . and died for it.