While generally true this iterative process created a huge amount of cruft and cargo cult, the best example of which is the common law system: Does it work? Absolutely, and surprisingly well at that. It's however also ridiculously Byzantine and can be quite inequitable.

These convoluted structures and systems increasingly break down because they mandate a common code for everyone to live by regardless of their respective ideas and ways of living. Brexit is a nice example of this. An entire country's future jeopardised because a majority at that particular moment voted by a thin margin that this might be a good idea.

Who are they to tell others how and where to live and work? Conversely, who am I to tell them how they should live their lives?

I don't have answers to these questions but I feel the answers lie at a local level and with decentralised structures rather than nation states.