Civics should not be the solution to game balance problems. If they are then they will need to change every time the balance is fixed or moved, They should just focus on their area and how that area evolves and changes over time.
In my opinion the civics should provide extra flavour to the game and there should not be one correct civic option for every occasion.
The first civic should be bad. Then there should be 0-3 per era giving the different flavour of play options. I miss the Patriarchy/Matriarchy options for the prehistoric era. I used either as my needs dictated, they were both good options for the time.
I do wonder if we could have solved many of the problems we are having by changing the number of food consumed by a citizen to 4 rather than 3.