US invention does seem to be flagging too. Bells labs has gone the same way as EMI Central Research, who invent the brain scanner and colour television. For some reason the US court found that the RCA version of colour televison was different - sine-cos modulation was different from quadrature modulation in their eyes.
The Range Rover wasn't any kind of invention.
If you want blue skies research Europe is probably the place to get it at the moment. China is training more technologists, but mostly overseas and the good ones tend to get bribed to stay - though the example I ran into in England eventually got bribed to move to California. with his family.