We are creatures of habit. We like it when things go the way they've always gone, because that's comfortable to us. It's tough to downplay the fact that collaboration requires change. Teamwork seems to really take off if governments aren't the ones directing the collaboration. Perhaps it means only that informal groups work together better because their members are used to collaborating.
Governments often escape collaboration because they can write their own operating rules.
This is a necessary evil. Bureaucratic institutions have proven themselves effective in providing services to large numbers of people, and local governments can't choose not to deliver services to their constituents. Despite human nature, local government leaders are seeing the need to deinstitutionalize. They are realizing that boundaries are becoming more meaningless every day. They are learning that problems can't be divided by spheres of influence or jurisdictional lines.