Does this mean the US is no longer the "most powerful"? Maybe so, since countries are moving off the USD, however the US could have at any time started mining BTC. I actually don't understand why the US government didn't do this already. It was so fundamentally clear (since at least 2011) that we were moving towards digital currency. And, this would most likely be a global currency that was not USD. Even in 2017, there was undeniable proof that this was the necessary path. Since that time, the crypto community met with US government on numerous occasions to help develop a strategy. It's hard to fathom why there was no "just-in-case" plan implemented in this regard.
The push by banking institutions to use XRP is suspect IMO, as other forms of digital assets have proven quite valuable (e.g., Monero, ZCash, Dash), and they've held up YoY. Beyond money transfer, we see cryptocurrencies such as FileCoin that will transform the supply chain by providing immutable record and transfer of goods. This can help solve the issue of proliferation of fake goods. I recall Amazon even talking about product verification w/o barcodes. IMO, this is long overdue.
Is it that people just don't like change? Or is it the very real and irrevocable disruption to US economy that seems to be rapidly approaching?
There are several other issues as well with crypto, and I don't see how is it going to become an "irrevocable disruption".
Irrevocable disruption to the US could simply be enough countries move off the US dollar. To do that a new currency would be created/adopted. BTC serves as proof-of-concept that value is driven by sustained adoption and trade. Further, the level of sustained attacks crypto has undergone from countries such as US and China reflect the disruption crypto, as a decentralized security, has on the world economy. All this to say, it's quite possible.