The US government realized this in the late 90s-early 2000s and started pushing NASA to go outside to utilize private industry in more a competitive way (instead of giving contracts to the same tiny group of gov contractors). This started initially under GWB and later Obama expanded it, which helped open the door to companies like SpaceX and X PRIZE type competitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Orbital_Transportat...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Challenges
The defense industry could use this sort of thing, which we saw with the costs/shortages of missiles in the Iran war.