...yes, just as NASA has become a successful jobs program, helping congresscritters deliver the pork to their districts for votes. In fact, given this real purpose, NASA has actually been quite effective in the science (astronomy) and planetary mission arena. Only in manned spaceflight has it utterly stagnated, unable to do today what was done 32 years ago with vastly inferior technology and much more expensive engineering design tools.

32 years ago the US had a sense of purpose and the sack to get it done.
32 years ago the US was a spacefaring nation and went to the moon
Today the US has MTV and VH-1 via satellite and fiber optic cable