I came across this video in my news feed. It is very interesting and I have to say it coincides with my experiences as a young teenager in the 1950s
Watch it all but take note of what is talked about at about 4 minutes in.
It is fascinating.
Good summary. In part, the inequality of the benefits that the UK gained from winning werre down to the US being determined that the UK’s role as the world premier economy and principle currency needed to be ended. The Bretton Woods conference on the future of global finance made sure, amongst other things, that the US dollar was the global reserve currency - which the US still benefits from today. The US wanted to kill off the power of the UK empire and also acted to acelerate its break up. With the UK also empoverished by debt repayments the US could be certain it would gain global leadership.
On the more positive side, there were great efforts and monies put in to ensure another European war (growing into a global war) did not happen. That meant not repeating the mistakes of Versailles and trying to make the damaged and split Germany comfortable, less likely to extreme political swings (right or left). That meant bringing European nations as interdependent in trade and economies as possible. And sitting alongside all that was a need to make sure communism did not take hold in any European country - and you do not become communist if you have a well paid job and good housing.
The UK was never going to benefit from any of that.