I've always been curious to see what the far future would look like in the Star Trek universe. I always imagined the Federation becoming old, bureaucratic, and corrupt, completely divorced from the ideals that founded it. Slowly decaying from within as younger civilisations assert themselves on the galactic stage.
What we got in this episode wasn't that. And I'm not sure I like it. It seems like the Federation pretty much stayed the same right up until the cataclysm, operating under more-or-less the same ideals and cultural values for hundreds of years, which I just struggle to suspend my disbelief for. And Burnham being so shocked and appalled that the Federation had fallen. She knows it's been over 900 years. It really shouldn't be that surprising. Cataclysm or not, nations and empires rise and fall, none last forever.