Safe heaven?

Is it me or are techtonic plates shifting in American psyche? Ten years ago any American picked at random would exude confidence that he/she is living in the best country in the world. Now I see a different mood. In the past few months, I had almost identical dialogues with at least four different people, coming from all walks of life: "Are you from Canada? Yeah, this is where we are thinking of moving to if things get worse here..."