NASA is certainly a victim of misaligned incentives and Darwinian selection. Its budgeting process rewards political savvy (e.g. jobs programs and pork), rather

NASA is certainly a victim of misaligned incentives and Darwinian selection. Its budgeting process rewards political savvy (e.g. jobs programs and pork), rather than effective delivery of its stated goals. It's tempting to align their incentives more towards outcomes, but we saw how that rewarded risk taking in the Shuttle program (and self-deception about those risks, e.g. Challenger's o-rings). The current two-level model seems like the worst of both worlds, with NASA being budgeted politically, then funneling that money to monopolistic private contractors which are 'too big to fail' (ULA, etc.). The disruption of those contractors by SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Relativity, etc. (and perhaps Blue Origin, if they actually deliver anything) was sorely needed. For NASA, this gives a credible alternative to the pork, without politicians appearing to be 'anti-NASA/science'.