The best-case scenario of why everyone collectively lost their mind is that governments and politicians are incompetent. They've simply been reacting to the mass hysteria in the public by trying to pretend they're doing something.

Um, the politicians were the ones working lock-step and sync with the hysteria-inducing media in order to illegally enforce lockdowns. It's why people like Whitmer is being sued for the over-extension of her powers; there was nothing "incompetent" about what she did, it was all deliberate. Done with malice.

And just to give you an idea of how much malice, they specifically went after people defying the lockdown to "make examples" of them so others wouldn't defy the lockdown orders: https://wbckfm.com/emails-michigan-ag-nessels-office-corrupt-vindictive-office/

Keep in mind that this is part of the same group who have been working to attack anyone exposing the election fraud: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/huge-exclusive-michigan-ag-dana-nessel-sends-cease-desist-order-journalist-demanding-erase-detroitleaks-video-showing-voter-fraud-training-face-criminal-prosecution/

And the courts are all in on it: https://krdo.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2021/08/04/lawyers-sanctioned-for-conspiracy-theory-election-fraud-lawsuit/

We could attribute incompetence to their methods if what they were doing wasn't deliberately evil.