I think the Aircraft carrier still has a role to play for the US, but as a modern naval "apex" strike weapon it has legacy flaws. They are huge targets and with current, and near future aircrafts, havs to come within naval missile range of any competent enemy to get at on-shore targets. Naval aircrafts really have a serious range gap.
As sea-area denial, subs with long range missiles are just fine, bring on more. Here in Norway, we are contemplating ordering six new German subs w/missiles, now that Russia has begun asserting itself.
However not all conflicts are red hot all the time, so if you need eyes in the sky to secure/observe areas and traffic and don't have any coastline to operate from..
And there's also third world country conflicts where an AC can, for the time being, operate with impunity, and is an excellent weapon system.
Me? I would build subs and missile destroyers..
