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What went wrong? Lots of things.
We overreached. As SJF911 said, "we have felt compelled to play world policeman at the expense of the American tax payer and their children and children's children." Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the meddling that didn't result in wars have cost us dearly in blood and treasure.
We shifted our focus. We started paying attention to poverty and inequality. Fixing those problems is not as sexy as moon shots and fast planes, and there is a large number of Americans with the "screw you, I got mine" mentality who have jammed sticks in the spokes of every attempt at change.
The price of energy skyrocketed. The Arab oil embargo put the brakes on the post-war industrial prosperity.
We lost an enemy. The collapse of the USSR left fundamentally angry Americans without a unifying international boogyman. Liberals, women, and minorities who were looking for a place at the table and the "screw you, I got mine" crowd became domestic enemies.
In the 1960s underclass Americans were given hope that opportunities for upward mobility would open up more than they did. Racism and sexism resulting in continued economic inequality remained in spite of new laws, resulting in more domestic enemies to hate.
Other countries, India in particular, put a huge emphasis on education as a way of improving their economic status while the US's historic recognition of the value of education nosedived. Competition from them took US jobs, while becoming educated was looked at as elitist by some in the US, and just too much trouble by others.
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