"U.S. citizens who watch the value of the U.S. dollar, and their savings, shrinking year after year cannot refuse to accept dollars."
That glass-half-full side of this is people will accept your dollars to purchases assets.

It's very hard to create long-term yardsticks of value. Ultimately value is meeting people's wants or needs. We might choose the cost of 1000 sq ft of residential space or the cost of 2000 calories. But the residential space we have today and the 2000 calories we eat today are very different from in pre-industrial time. Maybe we could border on crass and look at the cost of sex with an attractive healthy young person because that hasn't changed that much over time. Maybe someone with a less dirty mind can think of a better yardstick.

The author seems to be saying it's a failing of the USD that it's hard to convert from today's dollars to the dollars Abraham Lincoln spent for his Springfield home. That's not a failing of the dollar. It's amost impossible to calculate using any means.