America Not in Decline

[HopAlongBunny]

To "read" all of a nation's woes against a narrative of decline is to imbue them with a power that they do not have.

And as you go on to point out, it polarizes the discussion. Very useful for political posturing however divorced from reality, and can be repeated endlessly until one is eventually right or dead. The assignment of labels is very useful since who wants to be in a camp perceived as "leading us all to oblivion". Thank you for highlighting an interesting trick of language.