the stats are skewed because so many things count as "manufacturing" - that you wouldn't think of as finished goods. I believe electricity is part of manufacturing output, well of course we make more of that with our increasing population. and we have to manufacture foodstuffs to feed that population.
to really see what is going on, the data needs to be stripped of all these inconsistencies. we lose almost the entire furniture manufacturing industry to China, but some factories crank up "manufacturing" of laundry detergent and other consumer non-durables, as automated pumps fill more plastic bottles with it, and the numbers hide that.
I remember asking you this question a long, long time ago: why shouldn't the making of Liquid Cheer count as manufacturing? Does P&G pump it from the ground, or something?
Then you'd probably believe that the government includes hamburger construction in manufacturing output. But then again, some people will believe just about anything.