Why aren’t the infrastructure parts taken over by the state (or managed by an accountable non-profit body), and competition encouraged for the customer facing parts? Or maybe just do that via the state too, if there’s little commercial interest?
Whether or not monopolies would have actually developed had the government stayed out of it is something we may never know. At the moment we have the worst of both worlds -- monopolies that gained their position because the government wanted them to, not because they emerged as natural monopolies by beating competitors. It's impossible to threaten their business because you need to get government permission to compete with them and you probably won't get it. They have no reason to care if their customers are happy.
If the government had built the power lines (or allowed private companies to build them in exchange for selling access to others), and then allowed any number of private companies to generate power and deliver it over those lines, competing for customers on price and quality of service, I think we would be better off. If the natural monopoly theory turned out to be true then action could be taken at that time.
I live in one of the few California cities that are allowed to form their own power companies and I'm definitely better off than my friends who have to use PG&E -- I get the same or better service for a lower price.
Therefore Americans tend to prefer that private companies are allowed operate a business for profit will produce a more desirable product/service for the market. When they fail a correction in the market should occur and the business should fail. A competitor should be allowed to fill the void.
Yes, Enron was headquartered in Houston, but:
+ CEO Ken Lay was from Missouri;
+ Later CEO Jeff Skilling grew up in New Jersey and Illinois, although he did go to college at SMU in Dallas and spent most of his career in Houston;
+ CFO Andy Fastow grew up in New Jersey.
Because the political alignment which might ideologically support that is fairly new in California, and there is significant resistance to experimentation in how electricity is managed because the last time that was done (albeit, in a deregulatory direction), it combined with federal regulatory mismanagement to create the worst energy crisis in the State's history.