You'd think that they'd recover in the intervening (looks at calendar) 40ish years since Regan, if there weren't other systemic problems.

That's a selective and misleading interpretation of the Wired article.

A more accurate summary would be that in the face of unreliable instruments and an overworked ATC, the pilots made a rational decision that nonetheless resulted in their deaths. While multiple factors aligned to cause the accident, the inciting event and most significant factor was military GPS interference.