USGP failed because they could not find any big sponsors/fund the team. You would think some big american companies would jump at this chance but no one did. What sucks is they paid the entry fees for the season, then got fined when they could not make it.. I thought that was pretty harsh but that is business.
I think that USGP came at the wrong time; the team was devised at the time when companies were failing left, right and centre, with the exception of Ford, American car companies needed big bailouts from the government and other companies were struggling to stay afloat; none of these powerful companies were in a position to spend millions on F1 investment!
I think your right, it came at a time of economic turmoil. Many companies would not have been able to fund the team, they were struggling to fund their own companies.
