I think also the fact that WWII didn't really touch US shores contributes to the shit show we're seeing today. There were deaths in far off places and there were small forays on the east and west coasts that came to naught. But by and large life went on as usual with small privations. US citizens weren't hiding in subways or shelters whilst bombs rained overhead, they weren't shipping their children off to unknown people in the countryside. What rationing there was was more of an annoyance than a deprivation. And what hardships there were stateside were borne with patriotic fervor.
Then when the 'boys (and girls) came home' not only did 'life as before' resume rapidly but it started a period of unprecedented plenty in the US. I think it taught my parents' generation and mine (Boomer that I am) that the US was pretty much impervious to the nebulous and unknown 'bad things' that happen in unknown and 'less good' places. That we would always be triumphant and a land of plenty. And so came the complacency and sense of superiority we see today.
Lord knows I was taught in the '60s & '70s that the US knew it all better, did it better, and was better than any other nation. And my sons were taught about the same in the '90s & '00s. Even the disasters of Viet Nam and Watergate didn't change the national psyche all that much. And many of today's conservatives were yesterday's hippies, mostly thanks to the greed of the 80s and Reagan.
What we are seeing now is absolutely 'Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind'. And we did it to ourselves. Now many of us who saw the cracks but took it for granted that we were protected by the Constitution and our system of checks and balances are finding ourselves trying to paddle a canoe upstream in a raging river.
I haven't given up hope and I still believe we can survive. But it's going to come at an unbelievable cost.