If I might be so bold as to propose a vision:

While everything you've written is happening, there are tectonic or tidal-wave (choose your own metaphor) forces at work at a deeper level - the need to develop new energy sources so we're not dependent on foreign oil; the need to address climate change before the effects are irreversible and so disruptive civilization itself is threatened; the need to develop an economy that is people-centered and environmentally sustainable, while addressing the huge deficit at the same time...

We should adopt - with the same focus we brought to the moon landing - the role of technical innovator for development of new, non-polluting energy sources that we will share with all humanity.  It will reduce the need for wars for resources like oil, it will address global warming, it will help the balance of trade and give the economy the same shot in the arm that the computer revolution did.  If decentralized energy sources are pursued, it will help address unhealthy concentrations of wealth and power (universal rooftop solar thus is better than nuclear to develop).  Bringing these urgently needed gifts of human ingenuity to humanity would be a worthwhile act of penance for the abuses of the last six years.  And it will provide the time and money to address the remaining issues on the agenda as well - including the series of constitutional amendments likely to be proposed as America redefines itself.

This role builds on our historic strengths (Americans much prefer to DO than to THINK), and provides a vision that Republican entrepreneurs and Democratic environmentalists can find common ground around.

Jerome and Meteor blades have put this proposal forward before as an agenda for the Democrats to retake office, but it becomes more than that in light of the loss of a national consensus and self-definition that you describe.  If we no longer have the moral standing to discuss freedom and justice in the world with a straight face, perhaps we regain credibility by drawing on our know-how and can-do attitude to save the planet from climate change - while at the same time showing a bit of humility in allowing other nations, other faiths, to find their own way for a change.

And if this sounds like a rehash of of something a President Gore might have proposed in a State of the Union Address, perhaps the universe is trying to tell us something...

Ecological collapse is already happening. Your resentment of the word doesn't change the fact that it is occurring.