They're generally a left wing paper, the US is generally perceived as pretty right wing in politics and economics. Plus there's been the whole Snowden affair recently.

Brits in general seem to be on a bit of a downswing in terms of how amazing we think you are. Right now it's pegged somewhere around "you've got as many problems as the rest of us" where before ~y2k we thought the US was some sort of magical fairyland where everything was made of candy.

If it is a phenomenon it's only because of a different phenomenon you may not perceive: the incessant portrayal as US=Gods Country. This is pushed so much that many may see it worthwhile to counter and put it in check with "Come on, it's not that great... see XYZ"

Fair; I was under the impression most of that talk stayed in-house, so to speak. Are you referring to portrayals just by Americans which reach British shores, or portrayals by Britons as well?

I think this simply reflects the positioning of Guardian America, which is aiming squarely at the market gap to the left of the NY Times. There's a noticeable difference in tone between the US and UK comment pages, the US page seeming much more bombastic.

In Britain, The Guardian fills a political niche quite similar to that of the NY Times, perhaps with a little less stuffiness as it does not consider itself the paper of record (a position traditionally filled by The [London] Times, a more conservative paper.) It also has a tendency to be less deferential than the NY Times, but that simply reflects the UK press in general, where politicians are widely regarded as being only marginally higher than scum.

The Guardian is left-wing and not surprisingly usually leaning anti-American.

I think if you were to ask the self-anointed 'elites' in the Guardian editorial room and then the British people what they think of America, you would find somewhat divergent percentages of pro- and anti-...

As an American, I love Britain and believe in the Special Relationship, as much as the Guardian (and occasionally our current President) would poo-poo the whole thing.