From Steven Hayward at Power Line, quoting President Calvin Coolidge:

Under this weight [of ever larger government] the former accuracy of administration breaks down. The government has not at its disposal a supply of ability, honesty, and character necessary for the solution of all these problems, or an executive capacity great enough for their perfect administration. Nor is it in possession of a wisdom which enables it to take in great enterprises and manage them with no ground of criticism. We cannot rid ourselves of the human element in our affairs by an act of legislation which places them under a jurisdiction of a public commission. . . Its attempt must be accompanied with the full expectation of very many failures. . .

Behind very many of these enlarging activities lies the untenable theory that there is some short cut to perfection. It is conceived that there can be a horizontal elevation of the standards of the nation, immediate and perceptible, by the simple device of new laws. This has never been the case in human experience.

It is called Sin, for those who cannot remember.

AMDG