IMHO, actually there is one over riding reason why Government, at almost all levels can not work.
BLUF - any government solution arrives too late to be of any help.
Because the government is so distant from where the action is and has so many levels of incompetent bureaucrats it is never closer than three months behind what is happening. Frequently it is a year or more behind.
In any dynamic society, like ours, this means that corrective actions have already been applied at the point of action when the government finds out about the initial problem. By the time the approved government solution arrives on scene (3 to 12 months later) the problem it is trying solve no longer exists. But, a new one exists. To which the government approved solution is applied.
Visualize a pendulum swinging from side to side. Its ideal position is in balance at the center. By the time the government solution (push up to stop the swing) arrives the pendulum is at the high end of its arc and the government push up causes everything to fall out of balance making the initial problem worse.
Fantastic analogy. Thanks.
It also explains why we need the states to be handling this and not Washington DC.