Surprise, I have an opinion on this one..
Working in design and manufacturing as long as I have now, I think that what we are lacking in this area is vision. Browning had a vision of what he wanted and worked tirelessly until he achieved that goal. Today, we have better technology, better design packages, software that will analyze the design, perform structural and stress analysis and point out design flaws before they ever get around to make parts but things don't seem to be evolving.
We lack the vision of the folks like Edison, Ford, Browning, et al.....those men were brilliant not only in their own fields but in others as well. If JMB had not been in the gun business, he would have excelled in any endeavor he undertook.
I've been working in this field for 30+ years and I've yet to meet one engineer who could make these men coffee!