The greatest error the United States committed during its unipolar moment, was to simply stop paying attention.
This is certainly a fair statement. But it needs to be expanded: Americans became unable to pay attention to anything. And the same could be said of many countries.
What the hell was going on?
Whatever it was, it was nearly universal. And I think it was because we were hit by powerful new technologies that we could not cope with.
They all go back to the impact of Electricity and Photography in the middle of the 19th Century.
They gave us fantastic new abilities, but also new responsibilities. Most people settled for the new entertainment they offered (the Movies) without thinking of anything else. We also had the Automobile, that rapidly transformed our cities.
We were overwhelmed by all these high-tech changes. And developed two classes of people: those who benefited from these changes, and those that did not. There was considerable overlap between the two.
Another effect was the loss of small businesses, especially the family farm. That was not noticed, even as it changed everything.
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