As always, we need to caveat that statement.

Everything gets done by bureaucracies, unless it is the creative act of a single, unassisted individual. Even single creative agents usually rely on collective organizations for some form of support. Humans are social animals that live in cooperative communities organized by hierarchical principles.

True, collectives (bureaucracies) are not as efficient as individuals, but individuals have practical limits while bureaucraciess can grow as big as they need to get the job done. The largest bureaucracies are terribly inefficient, they involve massive overhead, but they are also very capable. Think of the rocket equation, you can always go faster by carrying more fuel, but doubling the propellant load doesn't double your speed. Diminshing returns is just the nature of the beast.

Private bureaucracies tend to be more efficient and effective than public ones, but not by as much as you might think. The free market may be more effective than the political process at removing grossly dysfunctional organizations, but bureaucrats spend their lives learning how to game the system and the ones that make it to the top are very good at it. In fact, the reputation and compensation of the bureaucrat is usually determined by how clever he is at mitigating or subverting the natural forces which tend to eliminate inefficient organizations. This is applicable to both public and private executives.

So what are we to do? Plug on as we are, take advantage of the natural controls of the free market but do not ideologically rule out the role of the political process to moderate and control it. The general thread of history, economics and politics tells us that we are getting better at this, and I am confident we will get still better at it as we go along. I have the utmost confidence in both the market and democracy. You will get neither without the other.