This is a question both for government performance and personal performance.
Regarding government, which is really the management of this nation, it has become impossible to find anything positive! All issues continue to worsen! Deficit spending and debt are literally out of control. Infrastructure is crumbling, SS is nearing failure, Medicare and health care are sucking the nation dry, the education system is a drop-out factory, millions of jobs probably lost forever, increasing imports over exports, an impotent Congress and administration, fraud and greed running rampant, military spending out of control, foreign policy and spending run amok, and we're either in a recession or a protracted depression and it makes no difference which one it is because they're both crappy!
Regarding personal (people), which is the management of our individual lives, the dumbing of America has arrived! Americans directly contribute, and are fully responsible, for all the problems mentioned above, and this stems from how we have chosen to manage our lives. We want and/or demand everything but seldom are willing to pay or sacrifice for our demands. Greed and self-serving behavior rules the day. The only unity that exists in the USA stems from our highly polarized and biased perspectives as we follow like sheep blindly worshiping a religion, or political party, or a talking head, or a set of boobs, or a union, or any organization whom we appear to hand over all of our thought process and decision-making because we're too lazy and stupid.
Yes these words are harsh and controversial, however, if we kept all of our personal behaviors to ourselves instead of forcing them into our governments and other people, things might be better. It's the height of stupidity for a voter to vote on anything simply because their political party agrees! It is the height of stupidity to vote for a president for no other reason than they are Black! It is stupidity and arrogance for anyone to force their religious beliefs into government and society! As long as this remains our typical brainless behavior, we will never analyze the critical issues with an open mind, with the intent to create something better for a majority. This is leading us to failure.
In business, the Peter Principle basically says given enough time we will all rise to our level of incompetence. There are myriad reasons why this happens and myriad steps to take in order to continue growth. Part of the problem of reaching our level of incompetence is to recognize that we have actually become incompetent. If we don't know this, or refuse to admit this, it is unlikely we will develop action to remedy our incompetence. If you can identify with the failing government issues in the first paragraph above, it is easy to start feeling like we have become an incompetent nation. If you can identify with the personal behaviors, it is easy to understand why the government issues are failing.
What are the current odds that in the USA we can actually do better? My opinion might be 40% we can and 60% we won't...your opinion will surely differ. I'd say if you believe the odds are 80-90% that we can do better, then I suggest you are not looking at reality and are depending more on hope and bravado. If the consensus is 50-50 that the USA can do better, then for me this is a critical wake-up call that immediate and effective action is required both by government and by people. If we ignore the wake-up call, all I can say is I'm not smart enough to know exactly where this will lead us...but I'm guessing it will be a very different place...and not a very nice place.
For those too whatever to read this far in the diary I guess this partially supports my position. For those who are reading these words right now...how do we right this very wrong ship...and I look forward to your constructive comments...