What am I missing? Did something unexpected happen with Brexit? Or is this fueled by the pandemic?
I'm sure it was brought up internally in the government, but they won the election by promising to deliver sunshine and rainbows brexit even though they had no way of doing so. Addressing it before it became a problem would've looked bad, so they didn't, and the pandemic provided a convenient excuse.
You might ask the same question about Trump. Surely someone in charge - someone with authority - should have seen the trainwreck a mile off, and done something about it?
The shocking truth is that there's no one with both common sense and overriding authority that prevents catastrophic wrong turns. This was absolutely an expected outcome of Brexit, by anyone with a clue. The trouble is that half the general population doesn't have a clue. Why did the government ask them? Because the party in charge at the time had a splinter faction led by some very radical, very loud voices, and it was beginning to cost them votes. They hoped to put the issue to bed by calling a referendum. Having done so, it was political suicide not to follow through even though it wasn't technically "binding".
Largely it's a matter of various people acting in their own selfish best interest at the expense of the interests of the country, and convincing a bunch of useful idiots to follow along.
Is that really considered "impressively effective" these days? I don't think so. It's bad governance.
Bush did it. Obama did it, while slowing down economic recovery Trump did it. Biden is doing it, and the economy is stagnating.
Looking farther back, every president since before FDR allowed debt to increase, although it wasn't really until the welfare state kicked in the 70s and 80s that we started hockey sticking.
It's hilarious to pin _all_ of that on Trump.