I think that is a flawed way of looking at it. Stuff like SELinux assumes the system administrator or software can't be trusted, and provides ways to protect ag

I think that is a flawed way of looking at it. Stuff like SELinux assumes the system administrator or software can't be trusted, and provides ways to protect against future attacks while enforcing only the minimal access needed. It isn't letting programmers off the hook, and isn't an alternate approach. Unless you can be absolutely certain of the code you are running, which no one really can, then it's the better approach.