It sidetracked the space program which didn't really have anything serious for the next step after the Apollo program. It saddled it with an expensive, hard to maintain launch vehicle, with unrealistic expectations of what it could do to help pay for itself, and didn't know what to do next.
The ISS is is horrible compromise project..too small to do what the original concept was, and very expensive.
The 70s and 80s were bad for the Manned Space Program...and that lack of vision, and the lack of someone to push for it hurt a lot.
It's reached a point that a lot of us die-hard space junkies have wondered if the agency isn't too filled with lack of vision and a certain defeatism, to go to the next level...
I think you've said it best, IMO.
A serious lack of vision!