This is partially because the improvements you mention come from the private sector while the things that you miss usually done by government (at the very least

This is partially because the improvements you mention come from the private sector while the things that you miss usually done by government (at the very least the framework). US has a long history of crony capitalism or corporatism and as a result no real general public health care, public transportation and so on. It also does not help that different states have different regulations in many cases.