(A few other countries have some sort of debt limit, but they're generally expressed in terms of fraction of GDP, which is _somewhat_ less problematic, though may have undesirable effects in a financial crisis... Doing it in absolute terms is _obviously_ going to lead to problems, though.)
It was for efficiency:
"Between 1788 and 1917, Congress would authorize each bond issue by the United States Treasury by passing a legislative act that approved the issue and the amount.
In 1917, during World War I, Congress created the debt ceiling with the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, which allowed the Treasury to issue bonds and take on other debt without specific Congressional approval, as long as the total debt fell under the statutory debt ceiling" [1].
There is no original sin. We just need a law that permanently authorizes the Treasury to borrow as needed to pay for the things the Congress told it to spend on.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-und...
The most significant long-term problems they created were probably exempting rich people from Social Security taxes on more than their first $125k of income and Medicare plan D, both of which created massive time bombs as the boomers headed towards retirement. The longer we delay dealing with those, the harder it’ll be to close the gap — which is exactly what they were counting on to build support for privatization.
But debt can be fiscally sound, as anybody with a mortgage knows.