It really is a matter of knowing some of the basics.
The US has held the Federal Fund Rate as close to 0 as possible for a long time. This should help businesses borrow to create new jobs. But what we see is no new jobs. Since the Fed rate is at effective zero the only likely direction is for it to go up.
The US has fallen out of the top 10 nations in innovation.
More countries now invest in China than the do in the US.
The US moved infrastructure to the debit side of the ledger ever since Reagan, and so our infrastructure, water, power, roads, bridges ... are falling apart.
We are simply not competing and have decided not to compete for decades. We sat on the bench while China and Southeast Asia and Korea and Japan and Europe and Africa and South America scored again and again and again.
We need to compete.
We are no longer the innovators, the inventors, the builders, the leaders.
We know what to do; just look at what everyone else is doing well. It's not hidden or secret or impossible; everybody's doing it.
BUT it will take time and effort and most of all education to turn things around.