On the other hand, there are also deep corruptions behind large projects in China, but they get to move forward fast.
Things in the U.S. is strange, large interest groups (regulatory agencies, all kinds of big contractors, political parties) all want to take a piece from the big pie, but they don't care to move things forward. Maybe because everybody knows the things are overcomplicated anyway, and nobody is going to take the project away from them. If the heads of the large interest groups can take bribes (above millions) as those in China, I guess the projects can move much faster.
More, because bribe money is out of sight, the game becomes all about power, i.e. politics. So instead of all sides comes together to take money, they fight for power, political influence. So comes backstabbing, sabotaging.
In the old days, there were gangsters and big unions, whose lives were depended on those big projects, so they actively engaged in "persuading" politicians to push the projects and they resourcefully removed obstacles. Nowadays, gangsters are long gone, unions declined, politicians come and go, nobody is actively pushing those projects anymore.