Yes. The shuttle was both rocket and spacecraft, obviously controllable for landing. The Shuttle SRBs were reusable. They were not controllable for landing, but nonetheless they did land in a state that allowed reuse.

Musk achieved powered flight for landing his rockets, but even NASA had a long history of research with VTOL powered rockets that were not used for spaceflight.

He can certainly claim to have perfected it, but he certainly didn’t invent it.