Hell, many Americans today consider the US to be in decline compared to some equally mythical period of the 1950's when men were men, women knew their place, and youngsters respected their elders.
That period wasn’t totally mythical as it corresponded to a time when much of the rest of the world’s production capacity had been destroyed by war and many of the world’s great countries had been empoverished fighting said war, and 10’s of millions of people in other countries had been recently killed by war. As a result the USA enjoyed a one-time huge commercial advantage that may not have been obvious to everyone (and it seems still isn’t).
