@jordinn I don't know anything about Bellah, but I'm suspicious of any arguments about souls of countries or general spirits of the population. It seems essentialist and a way of avoiding analysis rather than furthering it.
If it's 'individualism' that's changed USA then why was so much capital exerted to dismantle the New Deal, Great Society and the labour unions? The historical record just shows me there was a class war which the plutocrats won.