Exactly. I'm very surprised by this article and all the comments that apparently didn't bother to go check historical data and immediately started looking for c

Exactly. I'm very surprised by this article and all the comments that apparently didn't bother to go check historical data and immediately started looking for causes (they are lazy! It's management! It's inequality etc). But it seems the article is really about the fear of losing no. 1 place to China as can be seen in the conclusion: "the productivity slowdown of the past decade and a half has left the U.S. economy in a weaker position"