The political reality at the time was that Nixon financed the Vietnam war by borrowing overseas. The US Dollar had been tied to gold, but after others held dollars on that basis, Nixon went off the gold standard. Nixon then resorted to deficits to finance the war.

Inflation was followed by stagflation, when the Moslem world began an oil embergo of the US following on the US's support of Israel in the 1973 war.

Given this economic reality, space goals had pretty low priority. As a matter of fact, the shuttle was sold on the basis of its being cheaper to use then expendable launch vehicles. Furthermore, the shuttle was first sold as a two stage reusable. It was only later, once the US was committed to this course, that the existing configuration was substituted instead.

Its hard to accept this, but W.'s VSE could go down the drain for similar reasons today. On the "Middle East", essentially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I can not find much room for optimism. We'll see. LIke the saying goes, no bucks, no Buck Rogers.