"Worked"? I assume you're talking economically not spiritually. Spiritually, we're completely adrift on a sea of individualism and subjectivism.
America's economic rise has indeed been spectacular and unless something changes rather quickly, its demise will follow a similar trajectory. Two hundred plus years is a mere blip, in historical terms and no cause for empty boasting. The next chapter in the American story has yet to be written and it won't be pretty.
Any sort of major economic collapse in this country (and we caught a brief glimpse through that window in 2008) could transform urban areas into larger versions of New Orleans, post-Katrina, if and when government checks are no longer in the mail and anarchy becomes widespread.
Under such circumstances, our primitive "Catholic" neighbors at whom we currently scoff, such as Mexico, Honduras or Costa Rica, might suddenly start to appear rather peaceful and attractive.
I have a little bet with myself that these "third world hell holes" (to use Freeper-speak) will actually outlast the "world's only remaining super-power".