The canal is dying because the US doesn’t own and operate it anymore. I remember well when Carter gave it away. All the intelligentsia were in favor of this, even William Buckley but the American people were almost unanimously opposed. This stupidity was one of the reasons that Reagan won in a landslide and the GOP gained control of the Senate and although the Dems still had the house but narrowly, they were quite intimidated by Reagan. So some good did come out of this folly. I hope that Trump will find a way to take back control. It needs to be done.
The British gave up Hong Kong. We gave up the Panama Canal.
Pretty hard for us to justify on keeping the canal now that the age of colonialism is over.