It might have to do with the difficulty of changing from a large country with somewhat varied standards of living, into a small relatively uniformly rich countr

It might have to do with the difficulty of changing from a large country with somewhat varied standards of living, into a small relatively uniformly rich country. And I suppose that trying to impose uniform policies on a not-culturally-uniform group doesn't help either, especially when you add in hypersensitivity and the polarization that comes from everyone not knowing everyone else.