While still a highly influential nation, the US is not the pinnacle of economic, political and technological might that it once was.

This has become a generally accepted fact; the result of the global financial crisis and the rise of economies such as China’s.

However, decisions being made by US policy makers risk letting the country fall even further behind, as companies wishing to develop new technologies find they are better served by countries outside of America.

This could lead to a scenario where the US ceases to be a major player, giving it much less of a say in global policy and meaning it has to kowtow to greater, more influential economies in Asia. Not only this, but the US could find its cultural influence waning as money flows from other regions, significantly reducing its media exports, reducing job opportunities and giving US citizens far less of a voice on the global stage.

The most recent notable example of this is drone technology. Drones are becoming increasingly popular both for consumers and tech-savvy businesses, with applications ranging from deliveries to surveillance.

However, having long had rules that heavily restrict the development of drone-based businesses, the US’ recent proposals to update the policy have failed to improve the situation. While hobbyists would be in a far better position under the new rules, heavier drones required to transport products or equipment are not permitted, which means Amazon’s drone delivery service is out.

For many this won’t be a big deal: drone deliveries are a long way from being a reality, and as and when they are a viable technology, it is likely that rules could be changed.

But the problem for the US is that Amazon will take its development projects elsewhere.

On its Prime Air website, Amazon says: “We have Prime Air development centers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, and we are testing in multiple international locations.”

If the US continues to block development in the country, that US center could become redundant, and Amazon may discover other countries are better options for developing other technologies too.

Even where the US has reasonable tech policies, if there are more appealing options elsewhere, they may lose out. Earlier this week the UK announced its policy on self-driving car regulation, which effectively amounted to no additional regulation, geographical restrictions or insurance costs.

The move prompted Wired to describe the country as “the best place on earth to develop self-driving cars”, and with a wide array of environments and terrains in the country, it could become a popular place to test the emerging technology.

By contrast, in the US different states have different rules on the subject, and there are far more restrictions, making testing considerably more challenging.

If the UK succeeds in poaching the US’ self-driving cars businesses, it will not only see direct economic benefits, but will enjoy more growth in surrounding businesses. Technologies developed through self-driving cars will be spun out and applied to other fields, and the UK will reap the benefits while the US misses out.

In some cases, the issues affect areas that the US has traditionally been very strong in.

The US might have been the winners of the original space race, but these days it is no longer such a stand-out leader. NASA is undoubtedly still the most powerful space agency in the world, but it no longer receives the level of funding or wholehearted support that it used to.

Earlier this month Vox wrote an excellent piece identifying this issue, entitled For NASA, sending a person to Mars is simple. Dealing with Congress is hard. It highlighted that the core problems for NASA were not the technology, but the political issues and constraints that the agency faces.

Unlike the other examples here, the US is a long way from being overtaken on space research, and NASA has increasingly partnered with other agencies to make exploration a global effort.

However, right now NASA is still the major player, which means many of the private contracts involve work in the US. This work creates jobs and aids the development of new technologies here on Earth, providing both economic and political benefits for the country of origin.

However if NASA becomes increasingly hampered by political restrictions, it could eventually be overtaken by other agencies, meaning contracts shift away from the US and jobs, technologies and economic power follow.

Undoubtedly the US still has some areas where it is leading the way, one of which is through DARPA, which develops many emerging technologies for military use.

However, unless more is done to develop and maintain technologies that are showing strong signs of growing, the country may find itself losing many jobs to automation without new areas to replace them.

This could result in further weakening of the economy, and a fall from its current position of global influence. And if that happens, the US will no longer be the powerhouse it once was.