Go a layer deeper, and it’s simple psychology. By the time sears entered their decline, everyone working there was not only born after the founding of sears, bu

Go a layer deeper, and it’s simple psychology. By the time sears entered their decline, everyone working there was not only born after the founding of sears, but their parents were, and likely their parents too. Sears was a fixture, an eternal company, “too big to fail” - reified. That attitude is, again and again, the crux of the failure of long-lived organisations and institutions of every flavour from private companies to dynastic families to nation states.