There is an old, haunting metaphor frequently deployed in politics and psychology to illustrate the human tendency to ignore gradual, catastrophic decay: the boiling frog. If you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will instinctively sense the danger and leap to safety. But if you place that same frog in warm water and turn up the heat incrementally, it will fail to perceive the creeping existential threat. It will simply adapt, grow comfortable, and sit quietly until it is boiled alive.