Inflation has taken a bite out of the debt.

That's canceled out by rising interest rates

Which was cancelled out by even more inflation in other countries (so while the dollar lost value, the RMB lost even more value).

Makes sense.

What are the consequences of default?

Either having to balance a budget or a downward cycle where more and more interest is required for debt, leaving less and less for function of government.

To be clear: the consequence is that, the next time around, nobody will lend to us if we need it (which is why we would have to start balancing the budget)?

Next time is every single year because the US, like most countries, need to borrow to run the government.

Yes we would need to immediately start running a balanced budget. It would probably be a long time before we could borrow again. If we ever did borrow money again, we would be paying a higher interest since we've shown lenders that we can default.

It would also mean $33T in assets disappearing from the economy. That's a massive amount that would bankrupt tons of individuals/companies that lent the money. $2.8T of that amount is the social security trust fund which means we need to also instantly cut social security too. $7T of the debt is held by other countries who wouldn't be happy with us either.