TRUTH: This downturn is a secular process caused by unsustainably high debt levels and precipitated by a financial crisis, NOT a standard inventory cycle recession. It will take YEARS to work this out, and the country has in fact been PERMANENTLY changed. The good old days will NEVER come back.
Don't expect one President to solve a problem that the Republicans and Democrats both worked DECADES to cause. Decades of misdirected investments cannot be reversed overnight. The damage to the country's capital is permanent, and high growth won't come back.
Other nations are rising, productive technologies are spreading, and the competitive environment has permanently been leveled. The overwhelming advantage that the US had for a short time after WW II is gone forever. If America is declining now, it is because short-sighted leaders protected their own interests by playing it safe rather than acting like true leaders.
Don't blame reality on a political party. NEITHER party wanted to look at reality.