But relative prosperity has paradoxically sharpened discontent, especially among people who depend on the state-controlled formal sector for their livelihoods.
Speaking to the Institute for Government, the Cabinet Office minister said the civil service has "great strengths" but accountability to ministers needs to be "sharpened".
But centuries before intercontinental carbonation or the rise of the European coffee house filled with intellectuals with brains sharpened by caffeine, the first beverage which marked civilization's improvement upon nature was beer.