If you think it is a decrease in the real gross domestic production and purchasing power of Americans, we are clearly already there.
If you think it is the slope employment for some reason, then no.
[0]: https://www.nber.org/business-cycle-dating-procedure-frequen...
In the same vein, more people working, but making less, and producing less is not a growing economy
An online dictionary defines it as "the activity of producing, buying, or selling products or services".
For most people growth means that the economy is getting better and recession means that the economy is getting worse.
Maybe you are right and the word recession has become too politicized to use to describe the different scenarios.
That said, if you were in a plane losing altitude and other people thought it was in fact gaining altitude, this would be a cause for debate
That's a fine shorthand, but the reason the standard data and interpretation of it matters is that otherwise all you have is what people feel about the economy, which is not very useful information.
There are detailed answers to all these questions if you care to study it.