I have a theory about large bureaucracies. If they don't want to do something, they fail at it till it goes away.

I'll use schools as an example.

President W Bush supported a law that had schools tested, and checked on their ability to teach, and then have more funds given to those that did better. He also supported a system where parents could take their kids to those better schools as well.

The schools spent billions on making sure students passed these tests, and didn't actually teach better or find better methods to teach. Eventually it got so ridiculous, the entire thing was abandoned. The teachers won by failing.

Most states have requirements for each grade. Either the student shows they understand what is being taught, and can move on, or they have the equivalent time in hours, and are considered educated on the matter. Guess what schools do?

I took an online class in the 90's. It was so bad, I couldn't complete the first page because of a bug. Online schools continued to show they could do things, but most physical schools kept laws and directions to make it difficult for online schools to exist. Even today, during COVID, I know teachers that are angry that they have to teach online and have to deal with all of these rules, which they themselves made. They intend to make online schooling so bad, it fails and they win.

What other examples can you think of?