I wonder if it's survivorship bias. Same as not every old building has survived the times, only the amazing ones did, maybe just the "amazing" government system

I wonder if it's survivorship bias. Same as not every old building has survived the times, only the amazing ones did, maybe just the "amazing" government systems have survived, while the others have long since become forgotten. I put amazing into quotes because SSNs have plenty of problems, but at least they are successful in that they are used everywhere. This in turn creates the impression that government systems used to be better than they are now.