InflectionPointUSA

Naval power has been significantly degraded in last couple of years. Ukraine has damaged Russian ships a fair bit away from its coast. Houthis have either damaged or scared off US ships from red sea. Nuclear missiles could always knock out an entire carrier fleet, and there is much less of a taboo for "purely military target", and there is no MAD retaliation justification if the fleet is far away from home country. Taboo is furthermore based on respecting a country/military as being underserved of losing.

The US military strength is exaggerated by reputation. It spends a lot on poor value equipment. Both Russian and US (Israel enhanced version) 5th gen aircraft have very shy use to cost and embarrassment of combat failure. It's debt levels are a threat to US financial stability, and so it was on a path to self destruction anyway.