In his final State of the Union, President Obama declared his belief that “a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy,” which he paired with the assertion that “there are outdated regulations that need to be changed and there’s red tape that needs to be cut.”

Hearing these words was less a cause to cheer than a depressing reminder of the road not taken. Obama arrived in office as a self-proclaimed reformer who aimed to go big in public policy. Tinkering with broken systems was futile; systemic reforms were needed. Health care, for example, needed to be reinvented entirely. Obama spoke as a progressive technocrat who wanted to pursue smartly designed post-partisan policies.