This is where quite a lot of people would insert a rant about "state capacity": the ability of the state to actually do things it wants and intends to do. Which requires people to do those things, trained with appropriate skills.
The peak of "state capacity" was undoubtedly WW2, when governments bypassed market mechanisms and became command economies. Out of necessity - war is the one venture in which failed state capacity can end the state itself, and the personal privileges of those running it and the elite around them.
It's not a coincidence that the centralized socialist institutions of the UK, the NHS and state education, date from that period. Heck, the state commissioned the invention and building of cutting-edge computer technology! But since that no longer matters, there's little to no will to build state capacity in computing.
The peak of "state capacity" was undoubtedly WW2, when governments bypassed market mechanisms and became command economies. Out of necessity - war is the one venture in which failed state capacity can end the state itself, and the personal privileges of those running it and the elite around them.
It's not a coincidence that the centralized socialist institutions of the UK, the NHS and state education, date from that period. Heck, the state commissioned the invention and building of cutting-edge computer technology! But since that no longer matters, there's little to no will to build state capacity in computing.