Why arent they as good as they should be? It's their recruitment and culture.
true.
the same can be said for almost every aspects in SG.
the political leaders (LHL, TCH, etc) are a poor shadow of the 1st generation (LKY, GKS, etc)
the civil service leaders (PeterOng, etc) are a poor shadow of their predecessors (HSS, Howe Yoon Chong)
the SPF leaders are bad compared to the earlier generations (Tan Teck Khim, GYH, etc)
etc
there is a lot of in breeding and the parachuting of inexperienced scholars into seats of authority has done much damage to how SG is governed