Its a perfect show, on could say. In its core, its like "hey, Americans are scared because of some idiot put a bomb in his shoe [1], lets take advantage and use their tax-dollar money to make them _feel_ safer. They won't refuse because they are scared and when you scare, most seem to submit. But its just a show. Twice on occasion I have seen TSA agents coming back from lunch and passing security just by flashing badge even if the scanner went off. Well, we have internal affair departments in cia, fbi, police for a good reason. If there is remotely a chance (there is) one of those good TSA guys turn bad, then we are all screwed.

[1] Let's not speculate whether he was CIA operative or at least drugged idiot who submitted.