MacArthur Park is melting in the dark

Why do we as Americans have such an inferiority complex when it comes to American culture? One of the reasons I associate the Beatles with "the day the music died" is that we lost our vision, our own true American vision regarding music and what that music is supposed to do. And whatever was happening to our American popular music at the time (1964 or thereabouts) was crushed by (and never quite recovered from) the British invasion.
Do I dislike the Beatle's music? Having heard it played to death, I can say I am tired of it. But I was as excited as the next person when I first heard "I love you, yay, yay, yay......" I was a senior in high school and we were all excited about this new sound. So I never disliked it. I was just waiting for an American counterpart--and that counterpart never really came. What was the best we had to offer? The Monkees?
I was never part of the drug culture and later on this whole "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" stuff was too much. Maybe it was the war in Viet Nam that dragged us all down. Thank God for Neil Diamond ("Cherry, Cherry") and a few others. Jimmy Webb offered a promising new vision, but he faded away. So what happened to American optimism? ("Up, Up, and Away?....") The Age of Aquarius had begun, as well as a longing after all things east Indian. Those were depressing times ("One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small...") and I took consolation in syrupy concoctions like "Cherish". An escapist by nature, I suppose.
Am I saying the Beatles killed American popular music? Wellllll..........yes. Maybe the reason Elvis refuses to rest in peace is that he was the last true hero of the American popular music. The poor boy from Memphis with his own sound. What have we had since that was not derivative?
Ever watch that big cartoon foot on Monty Python absolutely crushing and splattering whatever it descended upon? That's what the Beatles did to American music. Why did we let it happen?