What you are describing there is a bureaucrat, not an engineer. An engineer is someone who designs elaborate but clever solutions to a problem within specified fiscal constraints.
I'm a civil engineer by trade, and I can solve just about any problem you put in front of me in my area of expertise. It's not that hard, really. The VERY hard part of it is solving the problem in a practical, effective manner.
It's interesting that you should mention a dam, though. When you design a dam, you can't fake anything. It's either going to function properly, or it's not -- and that's exactly the kind of refreshing approach we could use in law. Nobody in his right mind is going to design a dam that falls apart within 6 months, and cite "international law" as an excuse to override well-grounded engineering principles in the design of a dam.
I guess my belief is that we don't really know what the constraints are. Human society is far too complex to think about in those terms. The best we can do is largely to leave people to resolve their conflicts peacefully themslves, free from designs by zoning boards, Departments of Education, and "fiscal constraints" that are far too big to begin with.
If your sense of an engineer is someone who knows how to live within his means then it's hard to quarrel with you. But there's a reason that "social engineering" is such a term of derision. :)