A big part of the problem is the melting pot. As a country, the US is like an overgrown teenager. It really doesn't have much of a core culture tying it together, beyond Hollywood and the dollar.

World War 2 occurred less than 80 years after the Civil War and much of the population were immigrants, or children of immigrants that had arrived after WW2, still mostly clustered in their various ethnic enclaves.

So World War 2, as the largest public works project in the history of the country, became the event that really focused the entire country. Making the military the golden child.

Safe to say, we are still dealing with consequences, as everything has to revolve around finding boogymen to validate the military.

Other than that, individuals are just convenient objects to give focus.