Why isn't this a political issue? I think it's because politicians are increasingly distracted by re-election, and end up delegating the actual work of governing to enormous bureaucracies, public and private. This delegation comes gladly, for two reasons: first, the risk of mistakes is very high, so the fewer decisions you actually make, the better, and second, the delegated organizations are very good at keeping the real perceived complexity of problems high. (Incidental complexity can be weaponized, like anything else.)

That said, the experiment hasn't really been done. Can a politician campaign on restoring the dignity of the American public? Can a politician convince people that security theater is real and really harmful? I would guess not, but I would be glad to support whoever that is.