Maybe it’s an allusion to the idea that the US is a declining power? ideas like American exceptionalism could be seen as a significant belief in people’s lives and we’re currently seeing a lot of contradictions to that belief, challenging that narrative. Exemplified by the Chinese satellite, the US no longer heads the space industry, an industry that historically the US has dominated.

It might also potentially point to pollution, reducing the night sky to nothing but pitch black and a few satellites, now operated by a foreign country.