Hakamos hamedinah was the furthest thing from their mind. Never mind the hundreds of thousands of Jews already in Israel working feverishly towards tha goal. The big rabbis didn't think it would happen.
And that's why big rabbis shouldn't run anything other than their shuls.
(Derech agav, he mentioned one of them saying that hair would grow on his palms before there would be a medinah. There's something else that reputedly makes hair grow on your palms...)