Perhaps part of the increasing transatlantic rift is personal. Listening to foreign leaders talk about the present leadership, it's like they're watching someone play pinball with one foot under the machine. Old line from Jean-Claude Juncker: "We all know what we should do, and if we did it, we wouldn't get reelected."
Europe generally has a much more sociological sense of duty among the leadership. No less bloodthirsty in the corridors of power, no doubt, but when they reach the office, one gets the sense that the work of understanding the right begins.
In the last city, there was an interesting tribute to Woodrow Wilson across from the research library--the tribute ends by praising him for his work in advancing a "rightful and united Europe" (droit/drept/recht) Perhaps due to this quirk of the language, the righteousness of the American politician is fundamentally different from the righteousness of a European politician.