That's where you've got it dead wrong. Sputnik spurred America's space program like almost nothing else. The Russians were a primary reason for motivating America to do the things it did, and eventually come out victorious. You really seem to have no clue how difficult the task was to overcome Russia, and how gigantically dangerous she was to America.
Once you introduce a complacency element, saying the things you did, then the future CAN turn out bleak. Let us pay heed to subtle warnings, instead of ignoring them all carte blanche.
I can understand your charge of complacency--I used to believe as you did. However, I have seen enough of these polyanna predictions that I now take them with a grain of salt. Especially when I see so many existing engineers either underutilized (doing Power Point engineering) or unemployed. Apparently, you seem to be clueless about that.