The US is transitioning from an industrial to a post-industrial economy; this automatically means fewer jobs as manufacturing is decreasingly an important driver in the American economy.
The US has moved towards Neoliberalism within its own borders, de-emphasizing the importance of small business and concentrating on large, multinational corporations, with the capacity to globalize production.
This keeps GDP growing, profits high, but real economic conditions for the population declining.
The spending on the War on Terrorism is largely financed by debt, and this is just another mechanism for diverting public money into private profits for financiers; pushing “austerity” on the population, while taxes are handed over to banks and investors.
If we do not understand the prevailing trend in the way the US, and the West generally, manage their economies, we will fail to develop effective strategies for confronting them.