namespaces a solution to recursive make issues?

[Kohn Gilispi]

Hello,
A rather large
project I am part of uses recursive makefiles. Although "considered
harmful", this has the benefit of being able to invoke "make" at
any arbitrary module/package subdirs.
I began wondering
if Make could possibly be enhanced to natively support recursive make
structures. Specifically, this would require treating $(MAKE) as a form of
include command, shielding su-makefiles inside a private namespace (taking care
of working directory changes using “-C” make invocation flag).
Correctly implemented, this stands to effortlessly
(or, possibly, with very little end-user effort) convert a recursive-make 
project
to non-recursive one…
I searched the archives/internet,
and was unable anything in that direction. What am I missing?
Thank You,
K.