Sure, if you define "successful" in the most cynical way possible. I don't disagree with you at all that many projects (even many non-space-related) are just jobs programs masquerading as "progress" or "research" or whatever.
But so what? I don't care about that measure of "success". I care about reliable, reusable, cost-efficient space launches, and all the technological and scientific advances that can bring. By those measures, the space shuttle was a disaster of a failure. That's what we care about.
It was wildly successful.
You're just under the mistaken impression that the goal was to go to space cheaply or whatever.
But the success of the shuttle program pales in comparison to the SLS and Artemis.
Now they're spending more money in all the right places, without that pesky distraction of launching the thing into space.