Even as the U.S. remains the world's pre-eminent nation by default, Volcker said, its example no longer inspires other countries to trust U.S. leadership. He said the U.S. is hobbled by lobbyists and an unwillingness to pass realistic budgets, as well as a civil service that he said has lost its ability to attract America's best and brightest to public service.

"The time is gone when the U.S. could lay claim as the putative superpower with both unchallenged economic and military might," Volcker said.

"The growing sense around much of the world is that we have lost both relative economic strength and more important, we have lost a coherent successful governing model to be emulated by the rest of the world," Volcker said. "Instead, we're faced with broken financial markets, underperformance of our economy and a fractious political climate."

David Fuller's view All the USA's current problems are self-inflicted wounds, in my opinion. While sobering and no doubt humbling, the US should also be capable of resolving its difficulties. I have no doubt that it will, but it could also be a lengthy process. Nevertheless some of the first steps have been taken and many US multinational companies continue to prosper.