“We sure did fall rapidly from what we were in WWII.”
After the war, with the rest of the industrialized world destroyed, America, untouched by the destruction of war was on top.
However, after a couple decades in which Europe and Japan could rebuild and re-tool, the US was left with an old manufacturing infrastructure.
Had we modernized our factories in the 1950’s and 1960’s we would have remained a manufacturing power.
Agreed, but then the leftist politicians started funding public everything, which started driving away manufacturing. New York City was a manufacturing hub, until mayor Wagner in the 50s started spending city funds on education (including CUNY), public housing and other social programs, as well as permitting city employees to unionize, raising taxes in the process; manufacturing started clearing out of there in a hurry.