The greatest engineering achievements of the 20th Century were the Panama Canal, the Manhattan Project and Project Apollo. We couldn’t do any of those today.
It is depressing, but this five minute PragerU video:
Why Can't America Fill a Pothole?
It is infuriating, discouraging, and depressing. But the short instructional video is, I believe, spot on.
One exception:
Threaten to move your pro sports franchise out of town, and that new stadium will get built faster than you can say “property tax increase”.