Meanwhile, allowing conduct to persist amidst uncertainty allows the potential benefits of conduct to materialize while maintaining checks against practices that are bad for consumers: both the competitive marketplace and future enforcers have the power to mitigate specific anticompetitive outcomes that may arise.
If the government basically checks out on its responsibilities, bad behavior feeds on itself, and the kind of insane envelope-pushing we saw leading up to the crash.
One answer could be a blurry instinct for the checks and balances Good Guy Moynihan and Bad Guy D'Amato that give American politics its vast stability.