Era beginning/end
The first crack into the Union...
The president of 2022 signed in an executive order that was disguised as a way to protect individuals from eminent domain as practiced on the state level. However, in the wording of the executive order was the seed of allowing any individual to attempt and declare domain, as long as the state saw fit to grant it. Since corporations were still seen in the eyes of the law of the U.S. as individuals, this allowed any corporation to declare whatever land they own as a separate nation that is not necessarily obligated to any of the laws, taxation or regulation for the U.S.