The "evolution of our obsolete airspace system" to a semblance of "electronic flight rules" is already underway, with the upcoming mandate of ADSB-out. However, due to cost, standards, and performance issues, there is still a LOT of pushback in General Aviation.
The FAA itself is as much to blame, with the continuing failure of their contractors to perform on the contracts to update the ATC software so it is capable of handling the ADSB load. The US is FAR behind much of the world in implementing ADS-C and CPDLC over the contiguous 48 states. It's been working in Alaska for years, and even Canada has it working over most of the country now. The new radar system for the enroute centers went on line a month or 2 ago, so I guess there's finally SOME real progress...