Political Correctness, and idiot politicians.
That, and the fact that NASA failed to develop a rocket that ran on milk and/or butter.
Probably Foggy Bottom using NASA to fund detente-ish projects, too.
I'll be the last person to try to claim our current situation is exclusively NASA's fault. As you point out, it isn't. There was political gamesmanship involved. That doesn't excuse away NASA's portion of the blame though.
Here we are after spending about $80 billion of the $100 billion cost of what the one-worlder's affectionately call the "INTERNATIONAL" space station, and we don't even have a launch system that can take our people or supplies to it.
Perhaps I'm not the best and the brightest, but it seems to me that if you're going to purchase a vacation home in Mammoth, you might want to consider if you have a way to get the family members there, before you seal the deal.
Am I missing something here, or are they simply wishing I was?