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Interesting perspective. Don't get me wrong, my interest in PO started out as a distaste for the modern american suburban, hyperconsumption culture. I grew up as a cul-de-sac imprisoned kid in suburban Columbus, OH.
I live in a small community of 15000 which I think is more sustainable than most PO.
I live on 1/2 my income.
I walk to work.
My 14 year old bike is in perfect working condition.
I'll be debt free at the end of the year (barring TEOTWAWKI before then) with only student loans left.
I buy as much as I can from the local farmer's market.
I average 1000 miles/ year on my truck.
My hope is that we can slowly transition to a more sustainable society that looks more like the 19th century than the 20th or 12th.
That was my hope too. But then I started thinking (practically) about the effect of positive feedback loops:
Falling energy production due to depletion -> economic fall -> social chaos -> war and terrorism -> further disruptions in energy supply
Unfortnately you're small community, assumming it has a shot of being sustainable, will simply fall prey to the "law of attraction" which means it will attract people from less well-off areas. That is unless it is extremely geographically isolated.
All a "slow return" does is give radical ideologies a chance to spread/germinate. Witness America's slow-motion collpase the last 35 years and how it has coincided with the spread of radical militant Christianty. I doubt that to be a coincidence.