Because this country has been efficient enough to have a great standard of living for at least a century w/o extremely high taxes.

So you're really complaining about loss of efficiency?

If so, I agree. We've become accustomed to costs that always rise, never fall. That's not what our parents and grandparents experienced as they lived through the advent of automated travel, antibiotics, jumbo jets and food production improvements that delivered better quality at lower cost. That seems to be gone- sure we have the internet and iPhones but where are the transformational industries? Where is the cheap power and faster/cheaper travel? Where is the cure for cancer? Why isn't the system delivering efficiencies that keep costs low and deliver an ever-increasing quality of life which (as you say) was the norm for the last century?