"Spin is all about "trying to influence", that seems to be what they are paid to do."
Take spin, add corruption and you have a powerful recipe for self delusion.
I'm not even talking about pure forms of corruption, I'm talking about the little corruptions that massage figures and alter rules so that spin can be applied. Which eventually leads to a bit more corruption.
I'm not even convinced it's always entirely the politicians fault, some wonk knows their master has an image problem and bad data on the way, presents it to the venal in a way which tones it down. Politician seizes on the news and the cycle continues.
Take jobs as an example, you're either in work or out of work right? Well no, take those in education out of it to massage the figures a little. Justify if on the basis that they aren't actually being paid. Then take SAHM out because they aren't actually looking for a job. Somewhere down the line they take people who've been out of work for over 6 months out, more because such massaging has worked in the past than with any justification. Little corruptions..
Meanwhile Jane Doe has been living in the same small town all her life. She hears the politicians slapping themselves on the back because they've reduced unemployment but she's never seen so many people out of work. She realises the stats are for the entire country so intuits that those damned Yankee's in the city must be doing really well. They aren't of course.
People, especially the older ones, are far better at seeing patterns and far brighter than all the government computers and census data combined yet the politicians rely on the data, which has been massaged to make them look better. A lot of the time I think they actually think they're telling the truth but it has no basis in fact on the ground, and anyone who complains is whingeing about their self entitlements and they're too venal and stupid to listen to their own people.
So complaints fall on deaf ears, or worse are berated, mocked and scorned. Oh Jane Doe is complaining, she should try being John Bronx in the city, but Jane Doe thinks that's where all the jobs are. So John Bronx must be lazy... The politician lives in the city so he only cares about John Bronx though in reality the politician has a nice island living lifestyle and would have a heart attack even thinking about being in the area where John Bronx lives.
So everyone is complaining and the politician needs to look good. Up steps the wonk to give them their latest data. Add some multiplier effects, election years, systemic shocks and one time events and you have a crisis of communications and confidence.
Course the media is following all this but they're from the city and know a bit about John Bronx. Their opinion pieces don't go down very well outside the city so decide they're going to resort more to fact based reporting hence they look at the stats....