The surplus and debt servicing near the end of the 90s didn’t have much effect to the debt: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEBTN

Social security and Medicare liabilities mostly wiped out any gains

What surplus there was came from both tax increases and reductions in spending. Along with a strong economy and low employment for tax revenue in the dotcom heyday

Any realistic change to pay down the debt would require substantial structural changes at this point. There’s no political incentive to do anything about that until runaway inflation and the US credit ratings start to really mess things up, and by that point it’s pretty much too late