We prove that dynamical degrees of rational self-maps on projective varieties can be interpreted as spectral radii of naturally defined operators on suitable Banach spaces. Generalizing Shokurov's notion of b-divisors, we consider the space of b-classes of higher codimension cycles, and endow this space with various Banach norms. Building on these constructions, we design a natural extension to higher dimension of the Picard-Manin space introduced by Cantat and Boucksom-Favre-Jonsson in the case of surfaces. We prove a version of the Hodge index theorem, and a surprising compactness result in this Banach space. We use these two theorems to infer a precise control of the sequence of degrees of iterates of a map under the assumption that the square of the first dynamical degree is strictly larger than the second dynamical degree. As a consequence, we obtain that the dynamical degrees of an automorphism of the affine 3-space are all algebraic numbers.