American airports generally do a bad job is many areas. The number and access to electrical outlets can be awful. WiFi is usually nonexistent or for-fee and lame. And food is often just sad.
I think the difference is that outside the US the interested parties have decided to make airports a good, efficient experience. In the US, anything controlled by the government is low budget by choice and design, and anything above the minimum is left to the supposedly superior "private sector." But apparently there's no money in "good airport experience" for the private sector and we're all left to suck air.