For nearly a half century, Freedom House — the avowedly non-partisan democracy advocacy organization whose founders include Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Wilkie — has published an annual report on the state of freedom in the world. This year's edition, titled "A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy," is just out, and it is decidedly downbeat in its assessment of where worldwide freedom stands today.

"The unchecked brutality of autocratic regimes and the ethical decay of democratic powers are combining to make the world increasingly hostile to fresh demands for better governance," writes the report's author, Sarah Repucci.

There is little to cheer about in the survey of the state of freedom in 195 nations and 15 territories over the past year.

"This year's report is deeply concerning, in that it finds that we are in the 14th year of a global recession in democracy," says Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz. Scores improved for half as many countries as those whose scores declined, "and those declines aren't just happening in places that you expect, like China or Russia, but also in established democracies."

Twenty five of the 41 "established democracies" identified by Freedom House saw net losses in democracy since 2006. "The functioning of government, freedom of expression and belief, and rule of law," says Repucci, are "the most common areas of decline."

A decade ago, Freedom House rated freedom in the United States on par with nations such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovakia and Mauritius are ahead of the the U.S., whose ranking has dropped 8 points, and the U.S. is just ahead of Argentina and Croatia.

Much of the blame for the slide in the U.S. standing gets placed on President Trump. "The Trump administration has failed to exhibit consistent commitment to a foreign policy based on the principles of democracy and human rights," the report states.

"[Trump] has also given a pass to tyrannical leaders whom he hopes to woo diplomatically, including Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea," the report states. "Fierce rhetorical attacks on the press, the rule of law, and other pillars of democracy coming from American leaders, including the president himself," are also noted by Freedom House, which relies on federal funding for most of its $38 million annual budget.

"An ongoing decline in fair and equal treatment of refugees and asylum seekers," the report adds, "is also particularly worrisome for a country that takes pride in its traditional role as a beacon for the oppressed." India has had "alarming setbacks in the world's largest democracy" and also got a poor report.

Trump is described as part of a larger "drift from the ideals of liberal democracy" in which "freely elected leaders distance themselves from traditional elites and political norms, claim to speak for a more authentic popular base, and use the ensuing confrontations to justify extreme policies — against minorities and pluralism in particular." Among such leaders cited: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abramowitz, the Freedom House president, finds a bright spot in an otherwise largely dismal outlook for freedom last year in the rise of street protests in Hong Kong, Bolivia, Chile, Sudan, Russia, Algeria, India and Iran.

"The protests show that people want to be free," the former Washington Post White House correspondent says.