I would say that is the same , just that you always have elite high schools in the public sector as rarely anyone goes to private ones
a lot of dumb people also in Europe . I used to think that Americans are stupider , but when I arrived there I did not see any big difference
the biggest difference is that Americans on average are more ignorant and entitled, but this comes back to being the strongest
“empire” in the world . I am quite sure that British , Spanish , Japanese , etc etc were the same at their peak