Hmmm.
Yes, we are more or less incapable of strategic, long-term sacrifice.
Yes, we obsess over politics.
Too much? That, I'm not so sure about. Maybe our focus is on the wrong ball a lot of times, though.
I don't think that I agree that non-political events are more important in shaping the future. To me, that sounds like something a man selling a book or speaking appearances might say (forgive me if I'm reading this gentleman incorrectly.)
Examples:
Lyndon Johnson -- Civil Rights legislation, Vietnam War.
Richard Nixon -- created the Environmental Protection Agency, signed into law the Clean Air Act. Congress overrode Nixon's veto to enact the Clean Water Act.
Ronald Reagan -- the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the marriage between the GOP and the religious right.
George HW Bush -- overt racism in GOP campaign strategy.
Bill Clinton -- set the stage for the 2008 financial meltdown that turned millions of lives upside down and may have contributed to Donald Trump being elected (and effects of that will be interesting to measure in the decades to come.)
George W Bush -- the invasion of Iraq, which has fundamentally destabilized the Middle East.
Barack Obama -- too early to tell, but a front-runner is the Affordable Care Act. (Possibly white grievance, too, although that may be due to larger social forces like demographic changes.)