It's complicated yet also fairly simple.
We're outsourcing jobs as fast as possible, choosing to buy as much cheap imported crap as possible, including ungodly amounts of gasoline and diesel. We've even got laws to reinforce this. At the same time we're fighting wars we can't even pay for, nevermind the politics of it all. To ice the cake the USA has a lot of people who are very poorly educated, and are no longer able to find living wage jobs at factories because of their own decision to support the chinese. Our entire economy is collapsing around us, and meanwhile our government is trying to spend its way out with almost no attempts to actually fix things. Honestly we're pretty well screwed.
When you consider a place like Detroit, or Flint, or Pontiac, the harsh truth is that many racist urbanites would prefer it to stay screwed up and therefor contained in their little selfish minds. Certainly few outside people are in a rush to invest in the city, aside from the occasional trip down town or to Wayne State. It's left with a little legit business here and there, and a ton of money making through the illegal drug trade. Considering what's happening to our entire country, they've got no direction to go but to get worse, just like most other places.
