It was built in the ‘60s and started losing its relevance and funding in the 2-3 decades before the collapse. A lot of time for issues to develop, be noticed, but not have enough money to fix.
If the original builders had cared about the boring parts, then pre-WWII QC technology could easily have spotted the extremely shoddy workmanship in the zinc spelter sockets, while those were originally being fabricated.
Similar for designing larger safety margins into the whole cable system. Even PHB's can understand that "Hurricane Snaps Cables, Telescope Collapses" headlines could make them look really bad.