Maybe we're over-thinking with the monarch mindset. This also smacks of businessman "next quarter myopia" being applied to an unusually large stage.

The domestic slash-and-burn, the foreign policy tarriff chicken, even the minerals deal with Ukraine-- they all take the form of "you can book some great numbers for the next quarter. All it costs you is pesky stuff like 'long-term viability' and 'leadership positions', and those are only a problem for Future You, and who cares about him anyway?

We've basically become Hewlett-Packard as a country.