The British again were the declining power and was traumatized from fighting world War 1

We often have to place decisions win their own time and the experience of that leadership

The British new for a very long time that they were and declined going as far back I say 18th century according to the bright people of that time

Germany experienced a Economic miracle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that would have potentially smothered British power

The British have the advantages of being the world's first industrialisation and being in front of everybody else

Also the British in the 19th and early 20th century had a policy of appeasement towards the United States