Regulation. Environmental impact studies. Workplace safety rules. When we first built the interstate highway system, we just started bulldozing a path across th

Regulation. Environmental impact studies. Workplace safety rules. When we first built the interstate highway system, we just started bulldozing a path across the land. Now, there's five years of planning and permitting necessary for even a small bypass project. Edit: I'll add, also, survivorship bias. We see what was achieved. We don't see what was planned and never came to fruition for lack of political will or whatever reasons.