Because we let institutions run wild and don't have auto-expiration dates for laws/measurements that restrict civil liberties. I elaborated further on this elsewhere in the thread, maybe that helps clearing things up.
Auto-expiration dates won't help, the duration will be extended ad infinitum, because think of children. Unless you require quantifiable evidence of law's efficacy and causality to make an extension, which is quite a proposition given how every other law is unconditional. Even then, the data can be cooked.
In Ireland the legislation enabling government restrictions for covid expired, and the government who enacted that legislation have to desire to renew it. So it's not always extended ad infinitum.