It may have been pure dumb luck that it drained the treasury for 20 years

Or not

Point taken

I still maintain that government is mainly incompetent but you are correct there are schemes and scams that hide behind incompetence but in reality is just a gravy train for the insiders 

 Draining the treasury was kinda the point.
The slaves' money is stolen from them and put into the kitty while the military-industrial complex and other interest groups drain it
It may look like incompetence but in actuality, it's well executed malice 

 Yes the state is pretty good at wealth redistribution. The greater the failure, the longer the blunder, the further over budget then the greater the distribution will be.

Incompetence is built right in to the business model.

Money from the many to the chosen few.