It won't be a wonderful, magical thing that can send shivers down your spine anymore, it will just be yet another industry, another resource waiting to be exploited.
You've summed it up incredibly well. There was always something magical about NASA - just a mention of the acronym was enough to get me excited while a kid growing up.
Now like everything else, money is the driver - value add. Science, understanding and the progression of humanity are no longer good enough reasons. Money which could have been used is more likely to fund wars instead.
Watching the Shuttle from first flight right up to the last has been a privilege.
I quote a BBC reporter:
"As the astronauts arrive to prepare for one last mission, it's a bittersweet moment for residents on Florida's Space Coast: On 8 July they, like many across the world, will be celebrating the achievements of a much loved friend.
But they will be left wondering whether the best years of human space travel now lie now the past"
I hope he's wrong in his closing words.
and it comes in hella fast! 
It also glides in hella fast, one second it's a dot the next it's on the runway, is crazy compared to watching normal planes land, the videos don't really show how fast it all happens. 
