Is World War II so far away that everyone forgets how fucked up the entire world can become - and it doesn't take long for it all to go to hell either. The NSA has to get their shit together, but we still need real strategical/tactical intelligence inside and outside of the US. So when it does happen (and it will eventually happen) we're prepared not to lose our country, or even the world to the super nuclear powered…
If you behave in a way where others don't want to see you with total power they will have great incentive to find ways to have you lose power. The risks to the USA from being seen as thinking that might makes right is an acceptable philosophy (and since the USA has the might to pretty much do whatever it wants right now it can get away with doing so).
But those that must accept the bully today, will want to find a way out eventually. Currently the USA seems to mainly be aligning with short sited politicians the world over that trade off the rights of their citizens to domination by whatever they USA wants done. This actually works for the short term (to a degree).
But it likely creates situations where citizens elsewhere get tired of electing toadies to USA dictates and throw them out. And given the dynamics, those politicians pursuing anti-USA policies from those countries is increased as the flagrant might-make-right actions turn people off.
Balancing intelligence with diplomacy is wise. But the USA seems to have totally abandoned the idea that the rest of the world's population (95% of the total) matter. Diplomacy seems to have been abandoned for the much easier and funner (when you are the mightiest) policy of we have the might, do what we say or you will suffer.
I agree, that the world can become a huge mess fast. I believe diplomacy is critical in such a system - in order to protect yourself from the result of an out of control mess. But diplomacy is a mess and complicated and frustrating. I can see why you don't want to deal with it if you have the might to tell everyone to bow to your dictates. But I think it is foolish and risky to have limited diplomacy as much as the USA has. This limiting of diplomacy in the USA is not new, the consequences have just become much greater it seems to me in the last 20 years. We only seem to have really had any patience for it at all when dealing with the USSR - because we were worried about the damage that could be done if things went badly.