[brc]

Exactly! One of the less-discussed effects of 'Dutch Disease' is that it creates a political class who are determined to capture the inflow of new money and distribute it for their own needs.

The thing I get frustrated about is that people continuously say 'look we're better than Japan or the USA or the UK'. But what I want to say is 'well, why aren't we the richest country on the planet with the highest standard of living for all?'. Comparing yourself to mediocre performance just leads to reversion to the mean because people -as you say - become second rate and share in the luck, convincing themselves it was their wise stewardship that made the luck happen.