Something I have noticed about tax and spend advocates is they have shifted their messaging from "these taxes will pay for great services" to "these taxes will hurt the rich". It's telling that even they have lost faith in the ability for tax increases to provide meaningfully better services as an advertisement. I suppose no one, including myself, would seriously believe it.

I am referencing only the American zeitgeist, I assume other countries might have better systems.

"The government shouldn't help people" is such a bizarrely popular American attitude, that so many people take as gospel. Therefore "The government can't help people" emerges as reality. It doesn't have to be this way, but we make it this way due to the majority's stubborn choices.

You look at a lot of places and between unions, procurement rules, or an obsession with certain classes of contractors, government capacity is badly hobbled from the start.