Fareed Zakaria believes America's best days are behind it. The CNN commentator wrote as much in a Time cover story.

Why?

Blame the government.

"I really think that American government has become totally dysfunctional. I don’t pine for Chinese-style authoritarianism. I pine for the politics that made it possible to build the interstate highway system, fund science, create great state universities, build NASA, create the internet, open the borders to talented immigrants, and do it all while maintaining fiscal balance.

On every one of these issues, the political system is now paralyzed or moving in the wrong direction. Happy talk about the genius of the founding fathers is not going to get us out of this jam."