Yeah, if the US had the foresight to keep the geniuses that developed the F1 engines employed, who knows what they could have come up with by now?
But, cut the funding and divert $$ to social spending, and then howl when everyone finds out the skills and industry are gone.
The Russians are not smarter, they have just been at it continuously, not just when the political winds blow right.
Some would point out that the fact that they’ve been at it continuously would seem to indicate that they’re smarter. :P
Should be noted that a lot of their rocket engines are 60s and 70s designs that they worked out all the bugs on. Their new stuff is based off rethinking those while keeping concepts that worked.
Should also be noted that NASA went around killing anything that was a danger to their pwecious shuttles, so a lot of talent and skill was lost there too.