The article is kicking off with the implicit belief that America is the greatest at building. So if America is no longer the greatest at building, we have to in

The article is kicking off with the implicit belief that America is the greatest at building. So if America is no longer the greatest at building, we have to investigate where America went wrong. If New Zealand is bad at building but was always at building, there isn’t much to say. But if America has fallen, we have to look at the reasons, specific to America, to find out why.