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You don't know what you're talking about.
The 2002 World Cup was a very poor tournament. Most of the big European teams, and Argentina, under-performed woefully. The USA weren't the only team to do better than they should have.
What you will see in reaction to this, and to Euro 2004, is a change in style from the big European countries, less reliance on big name players who don't pull their weight, to organised teams who play for each other, like the Greeks and the Czechs did. European football is getting stronger across the board, and complacency has creeped in amongst the top sides. Germany are in a trough, at the moment, also, however they will return to the elite sooner rather than later.
The American side right now is no where fucking near the English in quality. Even past the current side, there are still a hell of a lot of quality young English players who will be ready to step up to international football in the very near future.
The problem with England right now is a tactically inept manager, who is getting paid far too much money.
The USA are over-ranked at the moment. If Ireland drew the USA in the World Cup, I'd be very happy with the draw, and fully expect to beat them comfortably.
Your resources argument is stupid, and doesn't consider the fact that you can't churn footballers out like machinery. Having a larger population means you will have more players to choose from, of course, but Holland has been a top side for decades, now, and they don't have a huge country. They do, however, have a world class technical coaching tradition, and a love for the game.
While the US has Freddy Adu (and it's a bit too early to even talk about him being a world class player, at 15, and it is not unusual for big clubs to court talented young players), France, for example, have enough colonial ties to Africa to find countless more young Freddy Adus from Africa.
And if the African nations start to employ more experienced, tactically aware European coaches to harness their natural ability, they will most definitely progress into a serious footballing power base, mainly because they have the main instigator of footballing development: poverty.
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