Also, I present Hurricane Maria hitting Puerto Rico as hard evidence that when the power is out for 2 weeks the society doesn't descend into violence
In the event where the entire US goes into the blackout for 2 weeks, things will be different. Sure, maybe not an apocalyptic anarchy on the streets, but there will be unrest. Because most people don't have extensive food and water reserves at the place of their residence.
The larger point I was trying to make is that things will be getting exponentially worse as time goes on, and the point of no return will be hit eventually, if we are not able to address the issue quickly.
To your larger point: sure if power was out over large swaths of the US for weeks on end, things would be difficult. But the power outage wouldn't be the problem, the problem would be whoever is causing the power to keep going back out (or the radioactive fallout from a nuclear war in the EMP scenario)
In a dying society like that however, it will be almost impossible to allocate labor to fix issues that caused the blackout, because as time goes on, violence on the streets increases. Weeks on end without food, water, heat, sanitation, order on the streets, weeks without ability to call or text anyone, people's trust into the government disappears, as does the trust into the currency of the country.
In a scenario like that, society eventually hits the point of no return.