I know the idea, but it's usually not 14-15 standards, it's usually like one really entrenched old crusty standard (if you are lucky) or (more likely) emergent

I know the idea, but it's usually not 14-15 standards, it's usually like one really entrenched old crusty standard (if you are lucky) or (more likely) emergent glued-together patchwork of hacks. It's definitely an uphill battle to introduce any new standard, but it does happen. USB-C, HTML5, ECMA6, I would say are some success stories.