Speaking as a Swissman living in America who studied aerospace engineering, yes, America is at the forefront of scientific exploration but no, not by the margin it had following a world war when every other great power bombed itself to the third world with the one exception, the USSR, starting to shred apart a quarter of a century later.
You are over-generalising the particle physics example - think about bioengineering, materials sciences, and aerospace engineering more broadly. A not-insignificant part of this is the extraordinary US military budget, a budget that will continue significantly eclipsing Europe for the foreseeable future. Now speaking as a former trader, America's scientific eminence will not be threatened by Europe - for that risk, look across the other ocean.
You are over-generalising the particle physics example - think about bioengineering, materials sciences, and aerospace engineering more broadly. A not-insignificant part of this is the extraordinary US military budget, a budget that will continue significantly eclipsing Europe for the foreseeable future. Now speaking as a former trader, America's scientific eminence will not be threatened by Europe - for that risk, look across the other ocean.