America still has vast resources, a large population and a huge pool of talent-- but its overregulation made companies think of it as a market, rather than a source of industry
Countries most often destroy themselves by refusing to gauge the consequences of their actions. That blind spot creates a weakness. The bigger it gets, the more vulnerable the country becomes. America's blind spot has been an unwillingness to recognize the economic cost of its social programs.
American prosperity was built on the combination of vast resources, cheap labor, class mobility and few regulations creating a society with the shortest line possible between innovation and production. But as liberalism's regulatory culture made everything from mining to manufacturing to employment more expensive, the old American economic miracles were no longer possible.