Yes, I'm afraid it's largely true. NASA did a pretty good job in the early years, but it's been quite a long time since they did anything very useful, aside from pushing back the frontiers of astronomy with the space telescope and exploration of the planets. And the best of that now seems to be past, too.
On the other hand, we do still hold the high ground from a military point of view, and we had better continue to do so. The Russians and Chinese understand the importance of space superiority, and are still determined to challenge us.
There is clearly a commercial use and therefore an economic drive to develop satellites. But it's not clear whether there will be that much of a drive to get out and claim the planets or develop tourism in space, unless things get cheaper. I'm not sure that you can say that NASA is blocking progress in these areas simply by existing, because they are doing so badly that they really don't offer any competition to anyone who can figure out a way of going past them.
Flying machines that go in to space. What's next, a musical about the common house cat?
Are you kidding? Look at the Mars rovers. A *huge* success, and they are sending far more advanced ones soon. NASA does a ton of great work. Project Constellation coming up will also be amazing.