What would be the motive for the current situation.
Do they? In my experience, they frequently try to cover their arses. It's particularly a problem if their job depend on it.
For that to work properly, you have to have a culture where people can adit to their mistakes and learn from them. In the case of a democratic government, that's problematic because you inevitably get pilloried for your mistakes.
For various reasons the UK electorate has elected an, essentially, corrupt group to power. They value their own fortunes way above the welfare of the people.
The government has plenty of scientific advisors telling them what they should be doing. Probably they are getting conflicting advice even from these people. Why would they listen to random people on the Internet screaming at them?
Of-course. That is why governments have to act objectively: Putting aside their personal or political interests; maintain good, meritocratic, organisations in place; and switch tactics or strategies when things don't work out the way that was expected.
The government has made a lot of mistakes and it would be great if we could sit down after this and dispassionately analyse what went wrong and how to do it better next time, but too many people will have too much to lose for that to happen. And I'm not just talking about the political appointees. The civil service is also not up to the job and nor are parts of the NHS (I'm thinking of the procurement department here).
The civil service and NHS have been mismanaged since well before the Tory governments, but both have actually been under attack under them. In many ways every country gets the government it deserves, but now we have someone, Cummings - without a single vote, in prime position and set to pull the system down.