Cancun beaches

Has Cancun gone downhill, with strangers harassing Americans on the beach?

Who do you mean by "strangers"? And what do you mean by "harass"? Are they hounding Americans (or do you actually mean "tourists") for money or sales? Or are the making personal security threats?

It deppends on which beaches you visit. There are public beaches where some people tries to sell you food and souvenirs while you're there, and there are also private beaches at hotels where security keeps those people away. My husband and me have a membership in Raintree Vacation Club, and when we stayed at Club Regina Cancun, we never had that problem. There was security watching every area of the hotel. But we visited a public beach once and 3 persons tried to sell us some things. It's not "harassing", but we prefear to keep our privacy during holidays.