Americans are abused children who grew up in an extremely abusive environment (called America for short) who have come to believe that they don't deserve any better.
Sh*tty healthcare, gun violence, cost of education, unaffordable housing, psychopathic leaders, on and on, you name it. This nation was not able to fix these issues even when we were at our highest point in terms of affluence and power, precisely because Americans are abused children who don't believe they deserve anything better than what we've got. The good things, the sense of security, an expectation that things will work right and no one as to needlessly suffer ... that's for other people. People who were born to better parents. The sh*t we endure is our lot in life and we better suck up and learn to live with it in perpetuity.
Is that also why so many of us grow up to become cruel people, who then perpetuate the cruelty that's been inflicted on us? Is that why we have such strong violent tendencies as a society, keep having substance abuse issues with a different drug of choice every generation? Is that why a lot of young men are maladjusted and lonely? Is that why we keep starting a new war every decade or so where none is needed? Corollaries can be further established.
That's my working theory at the moment: we can't have better things because deep down, we don't believe we deserve them.