Certainly, our capacity to exploit equity financing to develop new enterprises exceeds anything else in the world. Maybe this is what should get the credit that technology alone cannot garner. And yet, I am reminded that currency traders examine government policies before they make their judgments about how to hedge currencies. International investors begin with policies in determining where they should send their next investments. They clearly believe that government policies matter.
Most economists believe the same.
We are not predetermined by decisions in a market economy to arrive at the economic destinations that occur. Washington's decisions matter. Elections can alter those decisions. Therefore, they also matter. When Thomas Jefferson was musing over the best form of government, he concluded that periodic revolutions were good for government.