There is much to look at but those articles had little of substance. Reasonable stab at a timeline in the people based story though, even if what you might call rather one sided.
It flirted with a few interesting things but I want good numbers, projections, breakdowns of percentages and something to try to build a few of those together. Educational quality, education related debt, general debt as ratio of assets/projected income, nature of use of debt (the idea/execution of credit builder loans is nuts to me), projected income, retirement projections for young and old (and by extension career advancement), that would also speak to pensions, speaking of pensions local government in many places has a rather large axe waiting to fall on that one, home ownership, nature of home ownership (the palatial mansions thing is odd but the idea of a starter home is an odd one from where I sit), distance moved from place growing up, children per (sub replacement does not bother me but it does lead to fun things to contemplate, especially in the current villain of the week by way of the PRC), quality of healthcare and access to it (it is quite good so many of those now longer able to retire are able to work rather than rot -- I met 50 somethings and beyond in the 80s and they don't look anything like those of today, even with the epidemic of fat bastards), while the US does seem to hand out head meds like sweeties there is at least something to it, the US seems fond of its military but it costs an awful lot for not a great deal as far as combat effectiveness and equipment goes (many others get much the same for a lot less, not to mention the nation of fat bastards thing is looking like it might make recruitment hard), on military and force protection also comes diplomacy and things do seem rather insular, nature of business (be it breakdowns of general incomes, debt ratios, what kind of reserves they have), nature of infrastructure (broadband is awful, phones is a hard game but not all that much better, roads and bridges oh dear)...
Tell me a story with all/most of those, and why various numbers might be deceptive (in work might well mean underemployed, likewise most politicos seem to have adopted business wonk methods of next quarter and annual report which can have gaps filled in well enough) and I might be interested. Those links at the start though... amusing waffle at best, and some kind of face saving measure at worst (oh no the walking idiot was actually a genius, though business wonk cutting through politicos that spent their time being politicos rather than gaining some experience in the real world is almost as amusing as watching Japan slice up business wonks in the US a few decades back).