> Highly public failure on high profile, must-win episodes like COVID & the Afghanistan exit indicates that the US government may fail on any nontrivial physica

> Highly public failure on high profile, must-win episodes like COVID & the Afghanistan exit indicates that the US government may fail on any nontrivial physical world endeavor. This seems like a non-sequitur. What would the underlying cause even be, a sudden outbreak of incompetence, in every area where the US government operates? I think there's potential for confirmation bias here because the US's "state capacity" was never that impressive in the first place. You can point to "power, water, fire, public health, public schools, public safety", see problems, and characterize it as a "collapse". But these areas were problematic long before the COVID-19 pandemic or US involvement in Afghanistan.