I think Eisenhower's Administration was a plateau after the zenith of the World War II victory.
I think the election of Kennedy, probably due to election fraud, was the beginning of the downturn as the USA began its descent into decadence. The Kennedy Administration and the adulation of the Kennedys were part of the decay.
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address was actually a eulogy for a great civilization that had just been afflicted with a fatal illness.
It predicted everything we see today.
“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields.
In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”