I think it's both. That large shifts on a global scale of everyday things that we take for granted as well as historical differences on a geological time scale are genuinely difficult for non-experts to wrap their heads around.

And also as you say that many politicians are disincentivized to try in the first place.

> It's that some of them are allergic to true things that they find inconvenient, and have made false premises a pillar of their platform.

Sure, if by "some" you mean "virtually all".

Most policy makers will not live to bear the fruit of their labor.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary (power, class) depends upon his not understanding it