Is it therefore the lack of regulation of the infrastructure providers/owners that is another problem (unrelated to the current crop of failures) ? Lack of aspiration or long term planning from the government ?
If so, then I guess that's been a problem ever since privatisation in the 80s, so, for once, possibly, we can't just point our fingers at the current Swirl of Incompetence.
You need to break it down to 4 key areas and Ofgem licensed activities :-
Supply - This is where we have seen the recent collapses. Question mark of whether this is regulatory tampering, high wholesale prices or a bit of both.
Generation - Privately owned assets with a range of owners. This sector underpeformed for many years as wholesale prices were terribly low. A lot of assets were sold, mothballed or demolished leaving the Grid without enough spare margin. It's fair to focus on this but there has also been a huge build out of renewables during this time which is a big success story. The upshot is on low wind/sun days we struggle to balance the system. Market conditions currently support a lot more roll out of unsubsidised renewables which we should see in the next 2 years.
Distribution - Local Networks. Heavily regulated with spending and charging controls. Generally owned by pension fund type investors as returns are low but steady like water companies.
Transmission - National Grid wires. Again heavily regulated. National Grid is quoted and seems to generate steady returns. The general view is that they do their job quite well.
So it depends what you mean by infrastructure. I think a lot of the issues we are having are down to out over reliance on imported gas. This could have been reduced with more generation build out and not allowing Centrica to close the Rough storage field. And this is where the markets haven't provided. For example a pension fund, when building a wind farm is looking at a 25yr financial model with a view to achieving the returns they need to make the investment. They would prefer to do this in a regulatory environment that is secure. Politicians, though, think in 4/5 yr cycles and everything else is down to the next person. Long term energy policy has been sadly lacking for an awfully long time.