When old business patterns die, those who lived by them become confused. They often start throwing money in a variety of different directions, many of which they probably know are Clueless, in hope of picking up the scent of profit. (This picture, from Pravda, came up in Google Images when I entered the keyword mystery.)

It's unusual for many industry leaders find themselves in this position without a full-on economic panic ensuing. In fact, the economy is in pretty good shape right now.

But the tech portion of the U.S. economy is in full-on crisis mode, as you can easily see by looking at a few headlines:

• I've already discussed Intel's move as a telecomm insurgent. Add their new ties with Apple and you don't get a steady state evolution, but a dinosaur trying to catch up with evolution.
• Cisco has been sniffing around Nokia (or maybe just its infrastructure unit), which sent stocks rising today despite the fact oil prices again went to record highs.
• But it's Microsoft that has gone craziest. Wireless data? Paid blogging? These are micro-markets with promise of becoming no more than mini-markets.

There are some companies that are still following long-term paths to success. Texas Instruments is still pushing DSPs, for instance. Oracle is still pushing databases (although, given Larry Ellison's ever-louder calls for less competition, you have to wonder for how long). Qualcomm and Broadcom are still on the wireless trail (although they are at each others' throats).

What's going on?

It may be the greatest crisis ever to hit the U.S. tech sector. Anything requiring manufacturing prowess has moved to China (especially if you assume, as the Chinese government does, that Taiwan is part of China). Anything requiring software has moved to India. If you need algorithms you go to Russia, if it's robotics it's in Japan.

Intel can no longer depend on Windows for growth (thanks to AMD), Cisco can no longer depend on the Internet (thanks to Huawei), and Microsoft has still not gotten out of the Windows-Office box (despite a decade of trying).

And if the leaders no longer know the way, what about the rest of us?