Trains and crap Britain

I like Britain and I enjoy living here for the most part. When I was in Central Asia last year for 6 weeks, I really missed some things in Britain like the things we have on offer to buy, the cool climate and things like electricity and fridges! However there are some things that are crap in Britain and the trains really say it all to me.
Britain has become fixated on money. It used to be subtle but it isn't anymore. Virtually all government arguments are about the cost and value of certain decisions, money being wasted etc. Strikes are common because people want to be paid more. People complain about expensive houses and want the government to basically give them money (which the government obviously magics up in a big money room and doesn't come from taxes!), even great institutions are made or broken on the cost.
Do we like the railways? Of course, virtually everyone likes travelling on a train, in a sense, because it is roomy, mostly quite fast and allows you to do things you can't when you drive like walk around, buy food on the move, make phone calls and work on your computer. What people don't like are the prices, the hassle and sitting on a train for 4 hours at a signal because of a broken down train or suicide or points failure or staffing problem (driver in bed asleep). I thought about the Swiss trains, which granted are based on a much simpler network, and wondered how can they not suffer the same things that we do? Of course they can and they do but the issue is not so much "is the train going to break down" but "we will reduce the chance of breakdown and deal with it effectively when it happens".
Back in the day trains were new and went about 25 mph which was like greased lightening but Stephenson wanted more speed, more power, better traction, lower maintenance etc and improved various aspects of his machine to achieve these. Did it cost money? Of course and lots of it but what he ended up with was something with higher value, he got back the money he invested with interest. Why do Britons not do this anymore? Why do we bulk at investment rather than make things better? Why don't we make decisions to prune the rail network and make it work better? Spend money on useful projects and improve what we have?
I still don't understand in this day and age why it is considered normal to have points failures and signal failures. If we can send a space shuttle into space with no room for failure then why not take the same approach with the railways and create equipment that either doesn't fail or fails in a way that can be predicted and dealt with before it actually happens?
Oh yeah, it costs money.