Some thoughts on what we mean when we talk about "American exceptionalism," and where the concept even comes from, kicked off by @kbennhold's great story on the topic https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/23/world/europe/coronavirus-american-exceptionalism.html

American exceptionalism is an exceptionally slippery phrase. People use it to demand that the US do whatever they want from it at that particular moment. James Ceaser called it "one small step
for abstraction, one giant leap for abstractionism." But it does have a fixed meaning.

American exceptionalism consists of two claims that are often portrayed as synonymous but are really quite distinct: (1) The US is ordained as innately special and superior; (2) American global hegemony is an inherent force for good.

The story of where those two ideas came from, and how they became fused, is often mistold as emerging from Puritanism, or WW2, or the Cold War. In fact, they were originated as justification for seizing Cuba and the Philippines in the Spanish-American war.

"American exceptionalism" began as an ideological justification for the US to become an outright colonial power while squaring the annexation of foreign territory with America's early self-image as an opponent of European colonialism. Not as a force for democracy or freedom.

The origin of American exceptionalism is often traced to a 1900 speech by Sen Albert Beveridge, arguing for annexing the Philippines because God “has marked the American people as his chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world.”

Another common misapprehension is that the ideas of "American exceptionalism" have long been a matter of consensus. In fact it's been bitterly debated since its c1900 origins. It was consensus only for a ~15-year period from about 1984-1999, the so-called unipolar moment.

The unipolar moment is often misremembered in the US as constituting the entirety of history and the rightful default, which has profoundly shaped our foreign policy expectations and created what @JyShapiro called "the American omnipotence problem," but that's another discussion.

Anyway as precept #2 of American exceptionalism (US hegemony is an inherent force for good) continues its arguably inevitable decline, precept #1 (US is innately special and superior) is coming under a lot of pressure. What if we're just a country that happens to be big and rich?

If the UK's social and cultural rifts with the collapse of empire is any guide, this is an identity crisis that will probably be with us for the rest of our lives. But the underlying concept was always just an ideological veneer for one-off structural forces.