Stealth – the US "blunder" weapon

I am beginning to wonder about the future of stealth aircraft in the 21st Century, and for that matter, the future of the USAF in future conflict. Okay, your all no doubt wondering what the **** I’m talking about, right? So here is your answer.

When “stealth” was first introduced – publically – in the late eighties, everyone saw it as the ultimate weapon. Here was a plane capable of flying over hostile territory without being detected.
During Desert Storm we all witnessed the the impressive performance of the F-117 Night Hawk, taking out targets in Iraq without loss.
Shortly after the war however, the Russain military reported on the ability of A-50 Mainstay AWAC aircraft being able to track the F-117 without problems (once the crew knew what to look for).

Shortly after this, various independent tabloids and magazines not directly responsible to Washington or London reported on an insertion by US special forces into the Northern desert of Iraq to recover the wreckage of a downed F-117. No OFFICAL report was ever issued to confirm or DENY this incident ever took place.

The incident above took place before the outbreak of civil unrest in Yugoslavia, a conflict which the F-117 was all but with held from untill Kosovo. WHY?

Washington was forced to confirm the loss of one F-117 during the following recent conflict in Kosovo – but only after the Yugoslav media was able to broadcast pictures of the wreckage on national news.
A “state-of-the-art” F-117 aircraft meant to be virtually invisable to radar was shot down by either a MiG-21bis or an SA-6 (both of which were weapons generations behind the F-117). Then questions began to surface, how could a multi million dollar aircraft be destroyed by an antique?

In my own opinion – one I assume you will mostly disagree with, the US government is continuing to invest in equipment which is already past its sell by date and which will ultimately lead to the downfall of the United States Air Force. It is a known fact that various governments (China, Cuba, Czech Rep., Iraq, Russia and North Korea to name a few)have been working on methods to counter stealth. Given the fact that Russia no doubt knew of the American stealth program to some extent, is it possible Moscow already has stealth beaten?