The nested one--if his explanation is correct--suggests that among the concepts we might think about as we look for systemic explanations are "regulatory capture" and "rent-seeking." Nothing new about either of these ideas, but we may need new means to address these problems.
The decline in written record-keeping (and in the skills required to keep written records) is, I am intuitively convinced, an essential aspect of the problem. But it's not likely to be one single problem--it's a host of problems.
They're not going to be fixed by electing a different president, though many problems *will* be helped by that. We need to look at the systemic problem of bureaucratic incompetence, and we need to stop looking at it through the two reignant ideological paradigms--
Paradigm A: All government is bad; let the private sector take over; drain the swamp; starve these bureaucrats.
Paradigm B: We need more government, more bureaucrats, new agencies; more funding.
These are both stupid ideas and neither have worked.
Paradigm B: We need more government, more bureaucrats, new agencies; more funding.
These are both stupid ideas and neither have worked.
We need to think about another paradigm entirely: *Competent* governance--agencies staffed by talented people, not time-servers; people who are properly compensated for their talents; a bureaucratic culture such that, when people screw up, they resign.
