> Surely it wasn't the proliferation of government regulation of the development process (and the financials thereof) that caused developers to optimize for greenfield sprawl crap that could most cheaply check the boxes, get the cheap money, get the approvals, be compliant, etc, etc.

I'm sure white flight was a component, as well as subsidizing the auto manufacturing industry and a car centric planning model with federally funded highways.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

https://nlihc.org/resource/myth-white-suburb-and-suburban-in...

https://www.governance.fyi/i/191825260/the-money-problem-is-...

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-end-of-suburban-white...