All problems are engineering problems. In this case we haven't engineered a culture with enough people of engineering mindset at the top.

To say that something is a political problem is an empty statement, it attempts to pass the buck. Politics is decision making, as is coding. If we had decision makers who understood things like how the natural world works, we would have fewer problems with it.

I am even allowing a very broad definition of what engineering is: understand some dynamic well enough to intervene in it.