We can build amazing things today too, but we have a lot higher standards and a lot more requirements than they did, which makes everything take longer time.
Outside my office window an enormous new new warehouse was erected in just a few weeks, but it is just a huge box with no added extras so it can't have been very hard to do
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replyOne 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.
replyEngineering developed a government entwined professional licensure system and used that to capture value that was previously the domain of the construction industry.
replyThis also introduces massive potential for bike shedding, nitpicking, stalling, etc which of course costs us all.