Or perhaps they simply latch onto metrics that lend themselves well to confirmation bias. And the more scary and unpredictable this all seems, the more politic

Or perhaps they simply latch onto metrics that lend themselves well to confirmation bias. And the more scary and unpredictable this all seems, the more political will is generated for unbridled and unquestioned spending. I believe something quite similar to this happened about ~20 years ago: Scared populace, constantly shifting threats/objectives, incredible amounts of money unproductively spent chasing shadows.