That is true.
I've come to believe that the ultimate role of the Supreme Court (and not of the lower courts) is the prevention of civil war. The role is essentially that of emitting a ruling that will keep the country from splitting so badly that factions square off and start shooting at each other. They goofed that up rather badly once. Their role is to provide a non-violent venue to debate our deepest differences, and forge a consenus of acceptable compromise. If they fail, we fracture.
The role of the lower courts is to apply S.C. decisions uniformly.
That said, I get rather annoyed at the "living constitution" crowd that wants to use the S.C. to get us all to collectively act like the constitution says something different than the plain words on the paper. If you don't like what it says, amend it for heaven's sake. Even the authors put forth a package of amendments before the ink was barely dry on the original. The way to change the constitution is to amend it, not re-re-re-interpret it.