"Namely, they haven't really screwed things up." Could it be that in the past, external factors prevented that from happening: the industrial revolution, 2 wor

"Namely, they haven't really screwed things up." Could it be that in the past, external factors prevented that from happening: the industrial revolution, 2 world wars, the cold war, etc. But in the world we're in now, they aren't set up properly to save the declining domestic quality of life for the average citizen (e.g., see arguments along the lines of _The Two Income Trap_)?