And it's odd to think of how often we refer to governments as "they" - as though these entities are antagonistic structures run at the whim of some elite puppet masters

Quite right. Governments may at times be slow, inefficient or even plain stupid, but it's not institutionalized maliciousness.

• Most people that get a government job do it for safety, not out of power hunger. Some just do it because their parents or friends did.
• Most just do their job, though some will abuse their 'power'
• Gov. workers follow their guidelines 'blindly' not out of stupidity but because they'll be fired if they dont. And even stupid guidelines may have had good intentions. Like corruption prevention rules make the process of acquisition really slow and inefficient. And dont prevent all corruption, just the overt one.
• While the ability to set the guidelines may be abused to some extent, you cant just go all puppet master on a mature republic and turn it into an autocracy. That will take you decades (not pointing fingers, you know your own examples).
• Bureacracies are really slow to change course, just like mega tankers. Or bitcoin (just a joke, dont throw rocks ;). But depending on the new direction that can be a good thing.

So, while some parts of government will fight decentralisation, others will embrace it. Or simply not give a shit. Just like the rest of humanity.