SURE LOOKS LIKE IT: Michael Barone: Does the end of history result in political decay? “The bottom line is that good things (stable government, lack of defeat in war or major economic collapse) tend to produce bad things (decay of bureaucratic institutions, capture of regulators by the regulated, protracted litigation over needed projects and changes). And conservatives’ lament that a government that tries to do too many things ends up doing none of them well rings true.” More and more, lately.