The Decline and Fall of Roman Britain – Neil Faulkner

Why did Rome abandon Britain in the early 5th century? According to Neil Faulkner, the centralized, military-bureaucratic state, governed by a class of super-rich landlords and apparatchiks, had siphoned wealth out of the province, with the result that the towns declined and the countryside was depressed. When the army withdrew to defend the imperial heartlands, the remaining Romano-British elite succumbed to a combination of warlord power, barbarian attack, and popular revolt.
From the Publisher:
Why did Rome abandon Britain in the early fifth century? According to Neil Faulkner, the centralized, military–bureaucratic state, governed by a class of super–rich landlords and apparatchiks, had siphoned wealth out of the province, with the result that the towns declined and the countryside was depressed. When the army withdrew to defend the imperial heartlands, the remaining Romano–British élite succumbed to a combination of warlord power, barbarian attack and popular revolt.