Some countries already had their place in the sun, like France, Germany, Britain. Some are scheming to be the next thing once America falls, think Chinese Exceptionalism. Some countries had some moment of excellence in a specific way like Japanese with respect to its economy & technology.
I suspect though that most successful countries aren’t overall successful, but have a niche or specialization that keeps its people & political leaders satisfied more or less. I’m thinking of things like the unique political government make up of Liechtenstein or Canadian culture. Swiss banks and the democratic dictatorship of Singapore also come to mind.
The political concept of American Exceptionalism is probably a late 80’s invention, probably trying to figure out a way to keep the spirit of Ronald Reagan going. But it’s on the backs of “knowing” how the Second World War couldn’t been won without the military might of the United States, as well as the financial generosity afterward. Or at least that’s how the tale is told from the Greatest Generation to the Baby Boomers and is now possibly being deconstructed and rejected by Millennials and the younger generations who won’t have that kind of context to go by.
I agree America is due for something like a forced humility. I’m reminded of the very old tale of Exodus in the Bible. They could have gone straight to the promise land, but the people complained about the present sufferings, looked fondly at their past lives in Egypt as slaves, and when told about who and what would they faced in the future in the Promised Land, the people absolutely balked. So God’s solution through Moses was the 40 year wandering through the desert, essentially killing off the exile generation and letting a new generation arise with no context or memory of slavery beyond the Passover traditions to hold them back from taking control from the promised land.
Perhaps Senator McCain’s passing is a sign that it might have to end up with the passing of the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers from American society before the younger generations are ready to reshape their society. 40 years is a long time to be wandering through wildernesses though.
