Our Crisis of Institutional Competence

[B]ut the question is, Why?  Why are our institutions suffering from such widespread incompetence? Americans used to be known for "know how," for a "can-do spirit," for "Yankee ingenuity" and the like.  Now?  Not so much. ...

Systems are soggy when nobody's life is obviously affected by failure.  Any system involving civil service employees or contractors on cost-plus contracts is likely to be soggy.  As long as Elon Musk is at the helm, SpaceX will be crunchy, though given time it's likely to tend toward sogginess, as most institutions do.