There have indeed been some significant setbacks over the centuries.

First there were the temporal wars, the full ramifications of which have not been fully explored, but were likely pretty devastating.

These were followed by the one-two punch of a dilithium supply crisis, followed by “The Burn,” which caused most of the existing dilithium supplies to go inert and/or explode. This had the effect of making interstellar travel extremely challenging, and many planets became isolationist in the name of protecting themselves.

These issues have all been resolved, but they had a large impact on the development of…everyone, really.