This Administration, although it would hate to actually admit it out loud, actually put someone competent in charge of the agency with this enforcement responsibility and then.. to everyone's absolute surprise.. let them do their job effectively.
I think there was strategic value in keeping things close to the vest, and I'm not sure how much is in their hands and how much is how the media's reporting on all of this, but you're right, their inability to do messaging is going to lead the most economically progressive administration in half a century to be a one-term affair because their own voters haven't updated their priors.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.asp...
Or maybe being out of touch with what people want is the biggest issue
However, if you are interested in the economy, it seems the American people are aggressively misinformed about the quantitative state of the economy too [0]. Seems like many people are out of touch with the reality of a booming economy.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/22/poll....
I worked in the ticketing industry in 2007-2010. I remember when the CEO of our small org told us that he talked to the FTC as an industry expert when they were approving the deal. He said he didn't think it would harm competition.
Everyone else, including myself, could see where this was going. I don't know how folks could be that bone-headed even back then.