Somebody could argue that's a feature, not a bug.

But more seriously: if high federalisation means more mechanisms actually end up working fine without top-down directives, isn't that a good thing...? Without going all Bakunin, surely requiring fewer "chiefs" to achieve the same levels of prosperity can be considered a step forward for society.

Isn't that a case of more chiefs, each of which have less authority?

Ideally we'd all be our own chief, surely? So "going down" gets us closer to utopia.