Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you overestimate the reputation of the US and underestimate how much it has rapidly declined the last decades. I also think you underestimate how much effort it takes to really start over and become properly integrated in a new country. It is a very enticing prospect for many to side-step this issue entirely and still get an almost unfathomable salary for some countries.
And I think you overestimate how much things have rapidly declined. Is the US's heyday in the past? Of course. It is on a decline. But if your entire lens of what is happening in the country is news channels and the Internet, you need a reality check. As Dave Chappelle said, Twitter is not a real place.
Not sure what your point is. How do you think people shape their opinions and perceptions on things if not via media and the internet?
What would this “reality check” consist of? I would move to the US for a number of years just so I can determine whether I want to move there? Should I read the collected works of David Foster Wallace?
It’s perception we’re talking about here. It doesn’t have to be rational nor accurate.