I’d be willing to bet on quite a bit of it was a disaster unintentionally. Or at least degraded far faster than they expected it would. Reality is after all under no obligation to conform to the neat models and algorithms of number crunchers and intellectuals.

And an enduring issue with recent Western Thinkers and Leaders regardless of moral alignment. Particularly of the last 200-300 years. They rarely think in terms longer than a century and of 2nd and 3rd order effects

So we get blindsided by problems that realistically were probably predictable even during their era. Let alone in ours.