I know nothing about tactics, but I know I hate Altidore and Bradley.
Altidore has his uses, but his skills are all in raw physical athleticism like headers in traffic, and in holding the ball up to play to someone with actual ball skills. He's not someone you play at striker if you have better options, like Clint Dempsey or Bobby Wood.
Bradley was the best player the USA had from about 2007-2012. He was among the first US players ever to be a starter on a Champions League-grade club.
There was a time he personally demolished soon-to-be-world-champs Spain, and almost did the same to Brazil a few days later in what would have won the US a major title. He was good enough, recently enough, that you can kind of understand a coach running him out there hoping he'll figure it out again. OCST and many others think that it's just that his time has passed, now that he's not in Europe facing top competition anymore. Maybe they're right, but it's not like he's useless and always has been.
The overall talent level on the USA is probably higher than it's ever been. What's holding us back is mixing athleticism-first MLS-style players with technique-first Europe-style players and then not giving them enough time together to figure out how to play as a unit.
I mean, consider our (highly-arguable) best Starting 11 out there and look at their pedigrees:
GK - Howard/Guzan - Recent starters for EPL teams (Everton, Middlesbrough/Aston Villa)
CB - Brooks - Regular starter in Germany for a team ranked #4 in the league (Hertha)
CB - Cameron - Regular starter in an EPL team (Stoke)
LB - Fabian Johnson - Regular starter on a Champions League team in Germany
RB - Yedlin - Recent starter in the EPL, current starter for an EPL-grade team in the English Championship
DM - Jones - Former starter in Champions League-grade team in Germany until 2014
CM - Bradley - Former box-to-box starter in Italy, Holland and Germany until 2014
LW - Pulisic - Regular starter in Germany for Champions-League-playing Dortmund
RW - Zusi / Zardes / Bedoya - MLS star / MLS star / current MLS, recently a player in France and Sweden
SS - Wood - Playmaker for a (bad) first-division team in Germany; last year had an MVP-type year in the German second league
CF - Dempsey - Former legitimate star in the EPL, highest transfer fee ever for an American; current MLS star
We're not short on players who compete at the highest levels of the game. Jones and Bradley (and Dempsey and Howard) are aging out of that level, but still add value when healthy.
Compare that to tonight's lineup from Mexico:
GK - Talavera - Liga MX (Ochoa - Granada, Spain)
FB - Reyes - Espanyol, Spain / Ayala - Liga MX
CB - Marquez - The Forces of Hell, I assume. Won the UCL at Barcelona.
CB - Moreno - PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands (UCL)
FB - Layun - Porto, Portugal (UCL)
MF - Guardado - PSV Eindhoven, Netherlands (UCL) / Salcedo - Fiorentina, Serie A
MF - Herrera - Porto, Portugal (UCL)
MF - Dos Santos - MLS, former La Liga standout
FW - Corona - Porto, Portugal (UCL)
FW - Chicharito - Bayer Leverkusen (UCL)
FW - Vela - Real Sociedad, Spain / Lozano - Liga MX
That's a starting group that either plays for one of 2 UCL teams (Porto and PSV), or in Liga MX, with Vela being the exception. Other than at keeper, I'm not sure how many US players would start on the Mexico team, but the talent gap is a lot closer than it used to be.