I read an essay a year or two ago in the NYT that I wish I could find again. In it, someone explained that it's not that Britain was ever really a well-run, smart country; it's that it BELIEVED it was, and it could get away with bad policies becuase it has certain advantages, many of them coming from all the riches it gained via colonialism etc. I'd love to read that again. I think that person was right.