The incompetence could also be a result of the fact that a lot of shit is happening at the same time. I suspect that the world after WW1, where they also faced

The incompetence could also be a result of the fact that a lot of shit is happening at the same time. I suspect that the world after WW1, where they also faced many similar situations at the same time (pandemic, financial crash, etc), also looked pretty incompetent to everyone.