Taken in sufficient context, I think your point is a good one. But I get the sense that this is not the main thing bugging the author; what seems to be bugging

Taken in sufficient context, I think your point is a good one. But I get the sense that this is not the main thing bugging the author; what seems to be bugging him is that he is under pressure to justify his positions to a broader audience than would have existed in the past, and he may be having a hard time doing that. If he's making a point during a conversation with other experts about the cumulative costs in litigation of a certain policy implemented in some state in 1979, he's the boss. But if he's making a broad point about the welfare state, he's got a larger group of (well-informed) interlocutors to deal with and convince. I suspect he wants his expertise to carry weight on these larger questions as well.