Explain the conservative preference for the status quo and change in moderation.

Basically, conservatives do not have much faith in the
ability of people to devise perfect worlds.  They think that human beings are inherently
fallible and prone to error.  Because of this, they prefer the status quo and they
prefer not to have radical change.

So how does that go
together?  How does believing that people are fallible lead to
that?

Conservatives believe that the whole mass of people
are less likely to be wrong than individuals.  They believe that people are less likely
to be wrong in the long term than in the short term.  Therefore, the way things have
always been done is probably right and we should not depart from it too easily or
quickly.

Conservatives believe that when we try to change
quickly or radically, we are throwing away the wisdom of all the people who have come
before us.  Instead of heeding them, we are assuming that we know best.  Because
conservatives think that people are more likely to be wrong short term than long term,
they think we should be more humble and we should accept that the old ways are probably
there for a reason.

I am including a link to a discussion
of Edmund Burke's writing on the French Revolution, which is a classic of conservative
thought.  As that discussion says, Burke and conservatives argue
that

If every
human institution were not the best of its kind, then the institution would have evolved
otherwise. This vision reflects an innate pragmatism that trusts no a priori judgments
and leaves all arrangements to be forged in
experience.