The January-February issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine features an excellent cover article by editor James Fallow weighing the question of whether America has entered a period of terminal decline. On the one hand, he suggests that the nation’s crucial comparative advantages, above all an unparalleled system of research universities and openness to talented immigrants from around the world, remain strong. He also believes that the U.S. can respond to challenges such as job losses, military threats, and globalization. Where he is far more pessimistic concerns the country’s rigid and unresponsive political system.  He writes:

What I have been calling “going to hell” really means a failure to adapt: increasing difficulty in focusing on issues beyond the immediate news cycle, and an increasing gap between the real challenges and opportunities of the time and our attention, resources, and best efforts.

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