Peace brother Mubashir.
I personally feel that the requirement to pray has nothing to do with the state of the Ummah. Many Jews pray and are arguably one of the most powerful people on Earth if their influence is also considered. Muslim nations have seen tremendous successes "They prayed". The decline of the Muslim Ummah has many factors. Numerous you have already mentioned and there are many more. This has nothing to do with prayer. It is little use praying and then not upholding the values of the Quran, but rather following convoluted and oft contradictory traditions of the 9th century Arabs.
(note 9 not 7 - reference to secondary source canonisation periods).
Prayer is an important part of worship, an extremely fundamental part. But much of today's prayer is ritualised, without meaning and purpose. It is often uttered in a language where majority of Muslims have no understanding of it's meaning (Arabic). Many that do understand the Arabic, have a convoluted understanding of its narratives based on Secondary sources. Therefore in recitation, much 'hikmah' could potentially pass by.
There are many my brother, (probably like me and yourself), that Alhamdulillah are living a full life with God's bounties and thanking Him for it as much as we can. To instil justice, honour and righteousness in our lives as best we can with the hope to improve on our endeavours and in hope of God's salvation. It is a hope. May God help us. However prayer is still a fundamental part of our lives. It gives us spiritual strength as we commune with him at different times of the day with every changing conditions on the ground. I often find I have a new matter to discuss with my Lord. He is our God, our only True friend and listener.
God tells us that He does not change a condition of a people unless they are willing to change themselves (13:11) Unless they change what they want to follow, how will things change?
Why do many in Western countries seem to succeed? Because unknown to them, they seem to adhere to more Islamic values than do those that call themselves Muslims! Trial and error has seen them through intellectual growth, better technology, social welfare etc. But it has taken time and without guidance, they still overstep the mark in many areas. Overt Libertarians, political correctness, injustices for fathers, all this once again part of the trial and error method.
But Muslims have the perfect guidance. But do they use it? Well you and I know the extent of the answer.
However, I am sure that you do appreciate that this has anything to do with prayer.
I really liked your penultimate sentence which I concur with:
"As patients belonging to a sick Ummah, we need to sit up and ask the doctors of religion what are they feeding us in the name of a cure? It is not working for hundreds of years!! We need to examine the medicine to make sure it is the right one"On a related matter, please see the following link. I know I have shared brother Yusuf's video with you before, but I've tried to put it in another way for prospective readers to entice them to think, God willing.
Please let me know what you think.
http://quransmessage.com/articles/jewish%20prayer%20FM3.htm