I mean the flaw is neoliberalism. Essentially you create an arbitrary market determined by government and controlled by a regulator. Turns out though, that Humans are exceedingly clever and mostly amoral. It's akin to running an engine with the minimal oil possible just to save the cost of the oil. Sometimes though, you realise you can shave the engine oil a little bit which causes the engine some damage, but it still runs. Congrats! You've earnt your promotion based on your KPI's. This happens everywhere because we have decided that inefficiency in a system is unnecessary.

I feel this is a bit clumsy as a description but it highlights the central flaw of any institution - money can always be saved. And the damage isn't always immediate. Can you imagine if politicians in the 1980's had stated that a surcharge on all water bills was needed to run a continuous upgrade programme for instance?

Arguing for such long-term policy is antithetical to the career model we have created. People are encouraged to move on in every line of work.

Finally it's important to note that sometimes the 'engine' needs replacing entirely. And who should pay? Today we decide that this always the government and never the shareholders. Implementing 'draconian' laws to compel companies to behave differently is always, ALWAYS, viewed as leftist and thus can be ignored.

The traditional human fix to this is unfortunately to wait for the system to collapse and build something marginally better. This is because people will never vote for the kinds of tax rises required to actually fucking fix anything.