No one dropped any fucking ball. The failings of society are deliberate. Housing bubble? Consumer credit replacing Fordist/Keynesian wage increases? Tuition catastrophe? Those "incompetents" who make health insurance innavigable? The increasing social and economic distance between rich and poor? All intentional. It's the Haves becoming Have-it-Alls at the expense of the Have-Littles and the Have-Nots.