alt Hacker NewsOne thing that changed is that modern engineering moved a lot of complexity from the construction site into the design phase. A project today may take longer because we simulate, certify, model failures, and optimize before pouring concrete. The old projects sometimes had more visible physical labor, but less computational overhead.
Engineering developed a government entwined professional licensure system and used that to capture value that was previously the domain of the construction industry.
This also introduces massive potential for bike shedding, nitpicking, stalling, etc which of course costs us all.