Actually, the tidal bulge does not point directly toward the Moon, it leads the Moon slightly. Why is this so? Are there consequences of this effect?   
	▪	Yes, the Earth's spin is slowing by ~0.0015 s per century and the Moon's orbit is increasing in size by ~4 cm per year. At this rate of slowing, the Earth probably spun with a period of 22 h half a billion years ago. In addition, the year was then 397 days long. This process will continue until the spin of the Earth and the orbital period of the Moon are the same. This will occur when the spin period for the Earth is ~ 47 of the current days and the size of the Moon's orbit is ~1.43 times its current size. The process is slow and will take many billions of years. (Note that in 2.1 billion years the Earth's oceans will vaporize greatly reducing the tidal coupling between the Earth and Moon.) Also, remarkably, the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011 changed the shape of the Earth enough to shorten the length of the day by 1.8 microseconds and shifted the location of the spin axis of the Earth by 6.5 inches!