The original plan was for the US to have a dedicated force of 22s, which was designed to be (and probably is) the best pure air superiority aircraft on the planet, a cost-is-no-object starfighter filled to the brim with the best tech money can buy and given the sole task of shooting down other aircraft, with a larger force of cheaper 35s to do the airstrikes, air support, mopping up, and all the rest of it. More or less identical to the original roles of the F-15 and F-16; a Bad Ass Mother of a fighter plane (IIRC no F-15 has ever been shot down) with a Zerg rush of cheaper, more versatile jets following up to do the "dirty work".
That said, pure air superiority fighters are a luxury only superpowers can afford; the 35 was marketed as a fighter capable of taking on anything short of a 22 but also just as comfortable in a precision strike, CAS, or SEAD role, and the world did eat it up - there's still something like 3500 orders for the thing.
If you ask me, we shoulda punted the 35 to the Eurofighter consortium or someone, and just started up 22 production again with development of strike and naval variants. But what would I know 
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