Our best athletes are not running. America's best athletes are playing football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, where there's glory. In high school, the captain of the football team, or the quarterback, gets more dates than the runners on the cross country team. The athletes who have the potential to become great athletes are trying to become runners. We don't have the development system like they do in other countries to allow the younger athletes to develop with good coaching and in groups.
Groups are a big thing.
A lot of Americans train on their own. Seriously, I think most people take pride in their sport and would like to see Americans do well in an open arena. The fact of the matter may be that through a variety of physiological and social circumstances, it is non-American runners who are currently dominating the road racing scene. Eventually, as with all economic concerns, of which road running is surely one, road running will find its equilibrium. Races that find it in their best interest to distribute money to all athletes will continue to do so.