It's because we have no national purpose because we are no longer a nation. Instead we are an empire controlled by a conglomeration of vested interests ( foreign and domestic ). We used to be able to build massive projects like cross country railroads in the 1800s. Of course it came with genocide of native americans, theft of their land and the wiping out of bison/animals across the continential US, but at least we had a direction. We are now captainless ship and instead of trying to take control of the ship and give it direction, the elites (foreign and domestic ) are simplying offloading as much cargo as they can before the ship sinks. How else do you explain legalized gambling, drugs, culture wars, fixation on lgbt, etc? Yahoo sports has the "Sportsbook" tab in between NCAAB and NCAAF. Gotta get the young college students addicted to gambling while they are young. That tells you everything you need about the US.