If Mexico and many other countries shut down their governments, stopped paying salaries and threatened to default, he added, the titans of global finance, as they have in the past, would make sure the consequences were swift and severe. “We have little choice but to be responsible,” Mr. de la Calle said.

Especially in places accustomed to American lectures on good governance, finger-wagging has been easy to find. In Egypt, where the military-backed government has been criticized by the Obama administration for its heavy-handed crackdown on opponents, the American woes were splashed across the front page of the flagship state newspaper this week with alarm and a hint of satisfaction.

In Argentina, which defaulted on around $100 billion in debt in 2001, then the biggest default in history, the newspaper La Nación pointed out in an article that the United States “is supposedly an international leader, and one that speaks every day of setting an example.”

But in many countries, a wide range of people, from executives to shoe shiners, simply seemed surprised and annoyed, with some saying they hoped that Washington’s dangerous game of chicken would draw to an end without global repercussions.

“They’re putting at risk thousands of jobs here in Mexico,” said Ahmad Fayad, 31, an administrative assistant leaving a bank in Mexico City. “Many companies here depend on the American economy’s health. And if everything continues to be so uncertain, they’ll start laying people off.”

Already, many argue, the standoff in Washington has deepened the sense of America’s decline. On the streets of many countries, conversations about the United States now regularly include expressions of shock and dismay. One businessman in Mexico said that following the fracas was like watching a famous couple’s marriage collapse in public, with shoving, shouting and ugly insults.

How, many ask, did the United States become more like the rest of the world, and less of an obvious leader? “I think the U.S. is losing its place,” said Osama Shawki, a shopkeeper in Cairo.