"Some problems are so complex that you
have to be highly intelligent and well informed
just to be undecided about them."
--Laurence J. Peter
References:
I strongly suspect that the calibre of our MPs and business owners hasn't changed much over the years, other than during the time when the structure of society and democracy changed to allow a wider range of "ordinary" people to apply for the job. There was probably a serious increase in general intellectual ability when some of the Landed Oiks were weeded out during this time, but since then it's likely that the things that attracted MPs to their chosen career has not changed and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future.
If things are to improve, then, we are left with looking elsewhere to cause improvement; maybe to those civil service people who have the most influence over our politicians. Perhaps to the standards of professional advisers to business. Possibly to injecting a bit more of a sense of responsibility and a raising of standards in the world of reportage and media interrogation, although some of the cruel barbs of 16th century-born Hogarth indicate that things haven't changed all that much in a few hundred years.
The management of vastly increased complexity, where markets are (fairly accurately) predicting economic rises and falls six months ahead of the real world, is extremely difficult for the machinery of government and large corporations to cope with (nothing can possibly actually happen in six months where civil servants are concerned).
Its been said that it can be a bit like trying to change the direction of an ocean-going tanker in a sea of treacle. It takes a humongous amount of energy and a very long time to cause a five degree shift in direction.
Clearly the big thing that has changed is technology and it is this that's exposed the sluggish nature of both the political and corporate machines; a sluggishness that's always permeated through society - it's a major part of human nature. I love a bit of sluggishness sometimes...
Technology is a key to bridging the gap - it's what can both shorten and improve the decision making process and thus help the amalgam of politicians and civil servants reduce the time it takes to get into action.
Technology can speed up the sluggishness in the system and help manage extremely complex situations. It can at long last improve the hitherto impossible task of solving the *"wicked" problems that have always beleaguered society. *Wikipedia on Wicked Problems
These wicked problems have always existed and have always been almost impossible to resolve.
The technological age will bring forth methods to finally enable policy makers to resolve them and new technology will help tackle issues that they have really struggled with before.