UK-style colony management was also largely about access to colonial resources, and colonial markets. Colonial management was a means to that end.
The US empire is doing precisely that, through a mixture of soft and hard power.
The US empire is doing precisely that, through a mixture of soft and hard power.
Both have imperial dynamics, but for the U.S. the important part is being the "world's policeman" as it comes with the authority to destabilize regions and install puppets where their sovereign governments may act against U.S. interests. With this more limited administrative footprint, they're free to focus on use of violence and propaganda, while taking up domestic market policies that benefit net importer businesses and thus justify maintaining the empire.
Where people say that the Pax Americana is ending it is in part because the dynamic has grown more multipolar since the end of the Cold War, with a diverse group of nations asserting their interests without being overthrown.