they cannot and will not step down while other
countries, basically everyone that is capable
to do it, will do it
It's true that even if the NSA stopped tapping undersea cables, that wouldn't stop China doing it.
But there are plenty of other things they could do. Instead of weakening encryption standards, they could work to strengthen them. Instead of trying to get software vendors to install backdoors, they could get them to use deterministic builds with release checksum transparency. Instead of developing hardware backdoors, they could develop inspection systems to find them.
It also prevents the enemy from hurting your economy. The United States has a lot more to lose from compromising information security than to gain from it. Before 9/11, most of the time the NSA would help make security better for the private sector. Now, the private sector is actively working against the NSA.
What enemy is that? Would it really be that horrible if everyone had access to strong encryption regardless of their beliefs.
With sufficient know-how and sophistication you can keep your messages private anyways no? If that's the case, then isn't it really just the average joe using off the shelf tech that's screwed?
Edit: That sounded combative, but it wasn't meant to be.
But there are plenty of other things they could do. Instead of weakening encryption standards, they could work to strengthen them. Instead of trying to get software vendors to install backdoors, they could get them to use deterministic builds with release checksum transparency. Instead of developing hardware backdoors, they could develop inspection systems to find them.