Here's what I think is at the root of the problem ...

Some wise person in the TSA probably said something like, "You know. A while back John Cleese did some excellent educational videos on effective customer service and organizational effectiveness. We should watch some of those and see what we can incorporate into our processes."

Unfortunately, it's abundantly clear the TSA elders mistakenly took their cues from Cleese's Monty Python videos instead of his industrial traing videos.