Maybe it's more than experiment in Technology or Capitalism. I get the impression it is an older experiment rooted in nature as we left the hunter gather ecology for the drastically different ecology of farms and cities. The experiment you describe was just a consequence and part of that and is only a step in a longer journey.
You mention the demise of civics, but it was accompanied by the demise in teaching home economics, manual arts, physical education and many other important subjects ... that are not STEM. WWI demonstrated the power and wealth science could provide. The Scopes trial pretty much finished off the ancient war between religion and science with science being the decisive winner. Now, everything not science is crowded out. Something of meme competition and evolution, as nature does things. Science replaced all other knowledge. Don't get me wrong. I've devoted my life to science, especially biology. I figured this all out using science, but mostly from seeing that science was failing to answer that was necessary to human survival.
The experiment is not over. You say we need to do better with our technology. You say we need "better human understanding, better awareness, and better planning". Is there a way to do that? There is. You note that we are drowning in misinformation in our techno media. Everyone agrees we need better critical thinking skills to discern truth from the ... rest. Who teaches that lesson of logic and reason? You want understanding and awareness. Who teaches that? Isn't it peculiar that both of those are taught by philosophy, a subject that science has claimed is archaic and obsolete.
If you want the experiment to get back on track, a far larger experiment than technology or capitalism, we must look again at the King of Knowledge. It is far from obsolete. Our nations and civilizations were built upon it. Even science is built upon philosophy, even though it has largely been responsible for it's near death experience.
Currently I'm writing an essay about how to bring back philosophy in a useful form. It's importance is even greater than solving the problem you illustrate. Its importance is even greater than that it teaches us how to think. It is necessary for our survival in other ways as well.
