There is no abstract "government" doing it. It is the work of people who do not want new housing to be built for some reasons. They probably have lots of influe

There is no abstract "government" doing it. It is the work of people who do not want new housing to be built for some reasons. They probably have lots of influence in local governments. Local governments are small and arguably inefficient, it is easy for special interests such as homeowners to influence them. But there is a long tradition of local government in US and they have real power. The solution here would be for higher-level (state) government to intervene, keeping in mind interests of all state residents and not only homeowners.