As one example of how the US has opted to not divest from progress. The same applies to American infrastructure. The US was very aggressive for many years, then stopped. Stopped investing in science, space, infrastructure, etc. and chose to rely almost entirely on the private sector. In return, we have wasted at least a thirty year lead.
I would like to point out that the Arecibo radio telescope collapsed after many years of neglect and lack of proper funding.
Why would you like to point that out? As an example of how US is a declining scientific superpower?
As one example of how the US has opted to not divest from progress. The same applies to American infrastructure. The US was very aggressive for many years, then stopped. Stopped investing in science, space, infrastructure, etc. and chose to rely almost entirely on the private sector. In return, we have wasted at least a thirty year lead.
If I were to compress the last fifty years of the imperial core down to one word, it would be neoliberalism.