Rev dear Rev: Do the cracks that are showing in more and more projects and the general proliferation of crazy zany solutions to the problems of society evince that there is some futility abroad to all of this tinkering with human life?

No, am not so sure that that is the case. The proliferation of pluralism is occurring in a free world of much greater pluralistic libertarianism, and the sense of futility that accompanies such freedoms is something connatural to the human condition on a dark world. The two things though are not the same. It is now a more and more complex world that forbids simple solutions - maybe this is where the buck stops. Free humans do tinker but it is not always a bad thing.