I think a lot of people were increasingly on edge before the pandemic, and the isolation really didn't help them with their mental health.
It was still necessary from a disease control standpoint, and the USA didn't have the balls to crack down hard enough to do more than smear the waves out so our hospital systems didn't completely collapse. (E.G. New Zealand did a reasonable job of isolating properly, while China held the crack down too hard instead of crush the numbers, then loosen a little until things started to go back up and squeeze again.)
It was still necessary from a disease control standpoint, and the USA didn't have the balls to crack down hard enough to do more than smear the waves out so our hospital systems didn't completely collapse. (E.G. New Zealand did a reasonable job of isolating properly, while China held the crack down too hard instead of crush the numbers, then loosen a little until things started to go back up and squeeze again.)