You still have to keep in mind that something like 90% of the technological advances of the XX century were born in US labs. So it’s not that broken.
However, are you sure that these advances would not have been made if the US had a different system? Like I argued before, Europe has pretty much copied the system by now but I don't see much in terms of catching up. Take A.I., for instance: completely dominated by the U.S. and China. Europe?
Like in many things in life, copying someone else's successful model is by no means a guarantee that you're going to be successful too. Why? Because your circumstances are usually completely different from whatever you're copying.
DeepMind?
They certainly didn't pick it for the food ;)
I think if you look at where the researchers are, Europe does really well. As per usual though, this is poorly commercialised.
This would seem to militate against a notion that Europe doesn't do AI.
Now, Europe definitely doesn't commercialise AI well, but that's a different point.