I get that, I see it as theater, you see it as theater, some portion of society as a whole sees it as theater, but I would wager the Employees who have drank the kool-aid see it as necessary and important to ensure that they are preventing would be bad apples from doing bad things.

If the same dude was told to swab cars in the parking lot, but he knew it was just a job for the sake of theater (using that description) and treated the people he came in contact with as just average people, not potential would be bad apples, the act of swabbing cars can still seem or maybe even is stupid, but the TSA Employee can do his job without acting like he is about to actually catch someone.

IMHO, if he were more light hearted and was willing to laugh with the people he came in contact with, the experience while still smelling of Security Theater might just get a roll eyes rather than leaving a lasting memory of another bad impression of the TSA Front-line Employees.