Sometimes to answer a question you have to take a look first at the opposing side of the issue. For many people, there is still an inbred belief or perhaps an indoctrination that America is the greatest country in the world and nothing that is shown or said will ever convince these people otherwise. In that case, you can call these folks true believers, stubborn, obstinate, wrong-headed, or just plain fools. If the facts say one thing, yet you don't believe them, than either the facts are wrong, or wrongly stated, or misapplied, or your understanding of the word "facts" needs some serious updating.
America is not great for having the highest income disparity in the world, in which a very select elite, have enormous sums of money, while millions of impoverish people own virtually nothing. In addition, despite this being a democracy, the country is run like an oligopoly, in which a few corporations have a tremendous influence on government policies and corporate governance. When certain banks are considered to be too big to fail, yet others are allowed to fail, to whom do we owe this discretionary judgment? Those decisions certainly aren't made by the people, and government bailouts, which essentially take the taxpayers money and reallocate it to industries that politicians and their lobbyists wish to protect or to enhance, are a travesty in whole, and crony capitalism at their core.
America is not great for spending billions upon billions on Defense spending for no logical reason. There is no country or countries that could conceivably or possibly confront the United States on the battlefield. Defense spending should be on a precipitous decline but the military-industrial complex will not short-change or short-circuit itself and apparently there is no power or powers within our government that will challenge them.
America is not great for having the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Having so many people locked up is so unnecessary because the cost of incarcerating criminals is a high burden on the taxpayer, whereas for non-violent and victimless crimes, technology of today would allow appropriate government monitors to easily track the whereabouts of convicts in exchange for their being released early from their incarceration.
What made America great, why America is still great, are certain people within this country. It is the people that made America great, not the government itself which seldom understands the very country and the principles for which it stands. America is great, because of entrepreneurs that have great vision and desire to bring a new vision to the forefront. America is great, because so many care about the less fortunate amongst us and donate time, money, and wisdom to so many charities and good causes. America is great because of our freedom of thought, our freedom to pursue our dreams, our freedom to develop our ideas, our freedom to believe in God, and our freedom to not be held back by our class status or race or creed in our pursuit of the American dream.
America is still great because so many still have the courage, the vision, the work-ethic, and the desire to move forward despite or even because of the obstacles in their way.