[_carbyau_]

Your history book assertion seems similar to an assertion regarding "Magic". That being it is simply "hidden work".

Stage magicians can spend years conceiving, preparing and rehearsing a "trick". But on stage, when the audience experiences the illusion ... it is magic.

Similar to some workplaces stuff. There can be many man hours of time spent propping up repositories, testing, debugging, logging etc etc capabilities in general.

And when the shit hits the fan and the capability solves the problem ... magic.

Then the audience says "Thanks for solving the problem 10x Dev."