Remember this thread when the next "who says the US can't hang with the world?" or "why isn't running popular?" thread pops up.
We (the best of US runners) can't hang with the world because we choose to race for more money and 'biggest fish in a small pond' honors instead of taking on the world. You can make all the statements you want about how one guy did well here and another did well there -- but in the end (unlike college football), we have a cut-and-dry championship and when the best the US has to offer bails, it shows as (1) greed, (2) cowardice. Even if these reflections are not necessarily true, there is no denying that US running interests lie somewhere other than being the best in the world.
I only relate it to why running isn't popular threads because the US populous likes black-and-white championships. That is what worlds is and, by not showing our A team, we are showing the US populous that we don't run to compete against the best -- we run for some other reason. And America doesn't like their best athletes doing anything other than whooping ass on the rest of the countries' best athletes.