The spirit is still there David, in the sixties and seventies we led the world in suspension bridge design, just as we did when Isambard and his like ruled the engineering world The first Severn crossing and the Humber bridge were great engineering feats even if the latter was very poor value for money in transportation terms and was a purely political venture!!!
More recently it has been UK architects that have hit the headlines although when it comes to the tricky bits they then turn to the engineers!!!!!! That view is only a lot biased!!!
Perhaps one reason that we may have a relatively reduced presence on the world stage in the field of large scale construction projects is that we live in a relatively small country and once led the world and thus most of our construction needs and requirements have already been met. People ask why we don't have sea and river defences of similar capability to those of the Dutch ....... one very good reason is that in the UK the great majority of our urbanised areas and farmland is above flood level, in Holland it is the opposite. So, they face a far greater risk from flooding and consequently have far superior flood defences!!
Most construction expenditure is needs driven, many of our needs have been met.
Andy
