I feel like one mental model here is that the attention is limited and under capitalism capital aggregates in the hands of few. Their attention is limited to things that immediately better their position, the most capital-efficient thing to do is to gather more capital.

Cheaper prices, affordable housing, affordable healthcare are less capital-efficient. If you're Walmart, sure, you would like to lower prices as much as possible. But your leverage really isn't as big as finance or tech. If you're a politician, you might also pursue those goals, but your attention and leverage really isn't as focused as that of the money machine.