My point was the WGC rankings aren't necessarily better or worse than any other arbitrary ranking.
The point about decline vs upstart was more to the point that Stricker went from #4 to #8 and was thus in a decline, though still ranked ahead of many players on the Euro side. If you take the WGC rankings as valid(you don't) than the US has as many good players as Europe.
To be fair, I probably feel better about the US' chances because I don't watch the European tour enough. But what happened to Paul Casey? Wasn't he like a top 5 player in the world and then he's brought on as a captains pick, finishing behind Oliver Wilson and Graem Macdowell?