Motivation:
I tend to look for systemic answers, I simply don't believe in the cartoon view of the world that there are "them" pulling the strings behind everything... it is simplistic thinking.
The education system was created with the best intentions, and really has taken the human race very far in an astoundingly short time (200 odds years is nothing really). For a long while it worked. But the circumstances have changed. (the video in the comments of Sugata Mitra is really good at explaining this)

Right now though it is a system that has not kept up with the demands of the last 20 years (how could it really).

There are indeed very powerful incentives to keep the massive business of the schooling system in a status quo. Despite all the complaints about reduced education budgets, money spent on education is MASSIVE. The textbook industry, teachers unions, the buildings,... lots of gravy to go around.

I think there are a lot of individual actors who are not incentivized to change things all too much.

So I don't expect this system to solve itself. It is a monopolistic system that will come increasingly under attack by smaller providers who leverage technology and new principles like Self Organised Learning Environments, internet, cloud learning, decentralisation and all that other good stuff.

Interestingly, when I was exploring this area, I have started to think that the developing world has an opportunity to actually leapfrog the developed world in education too.
Simply because they don't have entrenched centralised systems, they can make the jump immediately to decentralised, self organised systems leveraging technology.
This has already happened with cellphones, cashless payment systems, solar adoption etc.

This will sound crazy to many:
Because education could also jump on the exponential technology growth curve, we could well have a discussion in 15 years on "how can the developed world catch up to the developed world in education?"