We are. Just look at the current administration. What they've accomplished in just 6 months is staggering.

We've just let the wrong sort of people control our communication infrastructure, set the messages disseminated by that infrastructure, and take power in a multi-pronged attack.

There's no reason there couldn't have been an FDR-esque strongman driven emulation of China's approach.

Instead we're blowing up the national debt, cutting services, dismantling soft power, destroying our scientific and academic infrastructure, and expanding the military.