I would say the actual downgrade isn't a huge deal, other than symbolically; with downgrading private debt, there can be some surprising information or at least surprising to the average investor. With government debt, everything I can think of is out in the open, and most of it is getting heavy play with the 24 hr news cycle of the modern day.
Hard to call any one point the high-point of American culture: first what metric are we using? The 20s were glamorous but we were not a world superpower until WWII. The 60s were artistically rich, but social ills were pretty rampant. The economy is fried at the moment, but the way technology is making information and communication mind-blowingly easy and interesting makes it hard to feel poor at times.
I don't think anybody ever correctly calls the end of an era right as it's happening; obviously if it is constantly said, then they will eventually be right, but there is a lack of insight as to where an when until after the fact.
I don't think it's the death of American culture, because for the most part, I think time will reveal that happened a decade or more ago with the homogenization into something that can broadly be defined as "Western" civilization, both with the Americanization of many parts of the world, and the breaking down of traditional impediments to global ideas and norms.
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