We have so much infrastructure that was built, and now we lack politicians who have any interest in communicating the need to maintain it.
Eisenhower started work on building the interstate system [1], but the components need to be maintained. Not just the surface roads and grades, but the bridges, engineered earth, and more. This costs money (and that money goes to the construction companies and workers who perform the work), but we have lost the national appetite for spending money on infrastructure, or really most things outside of the military, hence the relatively aimless goals of NASA (until Bridenstine, to whom I give a lot of credit for directing the aim of NASA, even if I might disagree slightly with his target).
Eisenhower started work on building the interstate system [1], but the components need to be maintained. Not just the surface roads and grades, but the bridges, engineered earth, and more. This costs money (and that money goes to the construction companies and workers who perform the work), but we have lost the national appetite for spending money on infrastructure, or really most things outside of the military, hence the relatively aimless goals of NASA (until Bridenstine, to whom I give a lot of credit for directing the aim of NASA, even if I might disagree slightly with his target).
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System