This was an inaugural address with a difference. In place of the usual sunlit horizons, Barack Obama warned of “gathering clouds and raging storms”. Instead of patting his retreating predecessor, George W. Bush, on the back, the new president spoke of America’s “collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age”.

And instead of the warm glow of self-congratulation, Mr Obama harked back to the “icy currents” George Washington had endured during the darkest moments of the Revolutionary war. No-one who listened to Mr Obama’s inaugural address – and before it even started, it was estimated to have the largest global audience in television history – could have been left in any doubt about the gravity of the situation that America faces.