US no longer on top

For quite some time now, the world's opinion of the US has been on a slow downward spiral. Many outside perspectives view the United States as a nation simply unable to learn from the mistakes of their past, while others believe the country has been on an overall decline for sometime now. However, while there has always been foreign skepticism regarding the true success of the US and the West as a whole, it seems as though even Americans themselves have developed a rather glum opinion of their homeland. Perhaps this is not all that surprising given the current economic crisis and the "seemingly endless war in Iraq," however this glumness seems to spring from a different source. Americans now fear not only that they have fallen while the rest of the world continues to rise, but also that the U.S. may in fact be responsible for global issues. Many have looked to the current president in order to displace some of this unwanted blame. As his time in the White House winds down, should America be looking up? Or with an enormous deficit, and a military mess in the middle east, will Americans continue to watch the rest of the world rise as the U.S. spins its wheels?