>I guess we let our science skills rot for 20 years.
Americans are world leaders among chemists, so I don't think you're correct in this case [1].
It looks much more like saturation, with only 7200 openings per year [2]. And over 13000 annual graduates [3].
We have an excess of chemists in the US, as best I can tell, and we should expect pay to reflect that.
[1] https://research.com/news-events/world-ranking-of-top-chemis...
[2] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/che...
[3] https://cen.acs.org/education/graduate-education/numbers-s-c...