The biggest problem is that the venture into space was led by government, which is spastically led by politicians who have to cater to the whims of the uneducated populace and the ambitions of terrestrially-bound corporations led by executives who can't see past the next quarter. The Moon Shot was the big wad spent by NASA and they haven't seen budgets anywhere near that scope again. And the only reason that they got such a big spend was because we were in a penis measuring contest with the Soviet Union with regards to space programs and politicians who could be whipped up with the Red Scare In Space.
We lack a firm leadership who has a vision of where the human race needs to be. Mr. Musk appears to be the next best thing to a leader with a vision. Without the Red Scare, your everyday run-of-the-mill Joe Blow in congress could care less about the space program if it won't get him re-elected.
That's why I led with an economic incentive to build orbital industry. It isn't just space tourism. It's about convenience for the jet-setting continent hoppers who don't want to spend days getting to the other side of the globe, or even from the East Coast to the West Coast in under an hour, totally feasible using a Starship orbit transfer with the orbital platform as the transfer point so everyone goes where they want to go. Layover in orbit waiting for your drop? Why not enjoy a meal with an out-of-the-world view? Do it enough times and even lowly plebeians may be able to afford the price with the economy of scale.
The orbital platform is a stepping stone. We build the orbital platform because it needs to be there. Launch facilities on every continent make it possible to put Starships into orbit on a regular basis, alongside Dragon capsules. Passengers exit the Starship, take a few minutes to look around, and then board another Starship that is exiting orbit, and they land on another continent in a mere handful of hours rather than the days it would have taken to travel by commercial airliner.
More passengers requires more space and amenities to support their presence in orbit, thus increasing the size of the station and the head count of workers. A larger work force means more opportunity for increased orbital industry.
First, we start cleaning up near-orbit space and recycling the materials we've been throwing into orbit for the last 60+ years. It's cheaper to recycle than it is to lift it from the deep gravity well that is Earth, especially if we have the infrastructure in orbit to make it possible.
Next, we start capitalizing on near Earth bodies (i.e., the Moon, asteroids, comets, etc.). We build and populate lunar bases and move nearby asteroids into orbit for raw materials. We expand orbital habitats and make them as livable as possible, using spin rotation to create artificial gravity. This steps us to the rest of the solar system. In orbit, we can manufacture spacecraft that never have to endure the rigors of orbital insertion, but are imminently suited for interplanetary travel.
This bootstraps us to Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, where we can exploit even more resources on rocky moons and large asteroids, building on our experience manufacturing in near Earth orbit. Sunlight will be weaker, so we will require more efficient solar energy capture - but we are an adaptive and innovative species as long as we don't kill each other and ourselves before we can innovate and adapt. Considering the vast amount of space in the solar system, there is a lot of room for expansion - and a lot of resources to fuel it. But we will take the next leap to extra-solar exploration and, eventually, colonization.
We just need to get off our collective asses and do it. Thank you Elon for being among the first to get up.
Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.