Feudalism is the enemy of all efficiency in communication and action.  The tendency of people to balkanize into their own fiefdoms, which occurs in just about every low-trust, low-communication society where the power of the central government and the will of that government to centralize communication and authority is weak, is one of the main reason for suboptimization within businesses, institutions, and governments.

I heard an interesting story today about a street in Bangkok, though this street could be in many other cities around the world as well.  First, the street was newly repaved as development on the street proceeded.  After the street was repaved, the water engineers decided that sewage and water lines needed to be put in, so the street was torn up, the sewage lines and water lines were put in, and then the street was repaved again.  Then the power department decided the neighborhood needed electricity, and there was no room to put in power lines beside the street, because of the building that had already gone on, and so the power lines had to be put in the center of the street.  And so the street was torn up, the power lines were put in, and the street was repaved.  After this a monorail was placed above the street, blocking the street and causing traffic problems for another year and a half.
Nor is this situation unique.  In the absence of recognized authority or the desire to cooperate with others (or the trust with others from which communication comes) this sort of inefficiency is common.  Common action requires communication about plans and intent that allows for coordination, but that requires trust.  As someone who tends to find trust difficult, I know many times I have made things more difficult than they could have been, and less efficient, because of a lack of communication.
The lack of communication and inefficiency are symptoms of deeper underlying problems.

What is the solution?  If trust and communication and coordination are not present, how can they be built?  In some ways, they must be constructed from the level where trust exists up.  Reformation and restoration begin from the individual and then proceed out in waves of influence, starting close and then expanding outward from there.  After all, fiefdoms themselves depend to some degree on trust, or else further balkanization and suboptimization will start on lower levels, fragmenting the fief into smaller ones until one reaches the level where trust and communication and coordination can safely exist.

When we see acts of restoration existing in history and scripture, we see a consistent pattern.  We see a righteous man.  We then see a righteous family, or a small group of people trained up to follow the ways of righteousness.  We then see the establishment of righteous communities, so that righteous nations may be built, with the goal of a righteous world.  The process can be stopped at any point along the expansion up by people who either refuse to be righteous, or worse, pretend righteousness but do not practice it.

Likewise, in times when a society is in decline the tendency of people to desire their own private nation, as the band Train put it so eloquently, also increases.  The trust levels suitable for a righteous nation are high, but as trust declines the focus and energy of people goes in smaller and smaller realms, until they are bowling and living alone, not able to trust anyone, not even themselves.