Unbridled capitalism, especially on the scale possible today, is anti-competitive and consumer-hostile. And economically and socially destructive in the medium-to-long term.

But still, given what it was, Sears had to die. Or be reborn. Death is more common! So the death was not the market failure. That was proper and expected. The state of the world left behind might well highlight a weakness/failure of the free market model. We may be in full agreement, just semantically misaligned.

I am not confident I have a good solution. All models impose some arbitrary metrics that are probably wrong (even if they are an improvement!).

But I agree that some form of anti-trust regulation and enforcement is the only possible structure for it.

My deepest relevant experience is in broadcast media, and I strongly believe that relaxed ownership restrictions and the outright repeal of the Fairness Doctrine were economic and social mistakes that we are paying for dramatically today. The issues are complicated, but the results are bad.