"do you think it can be saved"? - no.
"do you think it's OK"? Do I like what has happened? no. Do I see it as inevitable when I look at history in detail since the 16th Century and the American experience in particular? With sadness, yes.
"what are you doing about it?" - As each generation must, we must build from the rubble left behind by the previous generations, sifting usable bricks and stone, steel and copper, out of the waste of old dreams. Socialism was tremendously powerful in this country from the end of WWI, and the lust for socialism can be seen in the Union side of the war of 1861. There is a lot needing building. Hundreds of years of effort have proved to be fruitless. I try to get people to see that the basic structure of their everyday lives has changed, and has to change more. I am afraid and nearly certain that instead of changing how they see themselves and reality people will not change their hearts and minds soon enough, and will elect a "man on horseback" who will "save them from repression and servitude" to the "soulless Corporations" and the "rich" when the times go bad. Pretty bad times at the moment, actually, and wait for the inflation - deflation - inflation and unemployment on the horizon.
I raise my family, and try to prepare them by trying to make them think and see clearly, and work on the hearts and minds of those around me. Many illusions will have to go. Faith in "democracy" and the essential goodness of human nature will be lost. So will the hope that Government can be "good." Perhaps government as "neccesary" or "unavoidable" will replace government as "Uncle Sugar" combined with "a fountain of justice."
This sounds pessimistic but is actually not. Something good cannot be built until we stop trying to make the impossible happen. There are many positive possibilities. The Iraq business, the Empire, the dilemma we face generally, could have been avoided. We will come to see that this is so. What we now see are the fruits of hubris, as the ancient Greeks put it. The Tower to Heaven falls, Babel, and the people are dispersed into separate languages and tribes.
There will be an attempt to revive the ancient traditions of our culture, Duty, Honor, Country, as MacArthur put it, and it will succeed. I work toward this. Whether the future generations can build something good upon the foundation we the living leave behind depends on how well we build, but in the end will be up to them.