You bring up a couple of good points, but I disagree with you about your last point ” Who cares about the tallest building, largest mall/casino/….?”
I’d say WE ( the US) did care for many years (except the last few – since we’re falling behind on infrastracture projects due to local governments deep in debt). In other words – there is nothing to brag about. In fact, that’s what we were known for around the world (everything big – “a la Trump style”)…that’s fading big time… In my mind we are neither perceived as “what power we used to be” or “what the US stood for”…..). This was part of the big marketing/PR campaign that won wars….and buying into capitalism, democracy, freedom of any kind…. “The land of the free”…….now we’re more like “The land of the debters”.
