What made Europe strong and innovative was a bunch of countries each functioning as separate laboratories, to try different things to see what works: e.g. England, France, Spain, Portugal, the Dutch.
They weren’t all forced to labor as oxen under one yoke, as in Russian Empire or unified China.
When the leadership goes awry, of such a large entity, everything gets flushed with it.
At least back in the old days, if England made a huge mistake, Spain or other countries would do try something different.
Same with the United States.
Now collectivists, socialists, progressives and soft-fascists run top-down enterprises in both places.