This is how all life evolves. The bigger and grander the plans, in general, the harder and worse they fail. Communism and Brazilia spring to mind as examples. "Seeing Like A State" takes a look at the causes of failure patterns endemic to bureaucracy/government/planning. (Not saying we should give up on planning, but that we might learn to love and live with the idiosyncrasies introduced by iterative development in all domains.)