I think the key is that most politicians (and honestly, just about everyone still of working age) haven't been in an economic environment like this one- not since the early 1980's four decades ago. Everyone today grew up in a low-to-zero interest rate environment with low inflation. Argentina- the international borrower most famous for defaulting- has, over the past 21 years alone, defaulted 4 times (2020, 2014, 2005, and 2001)- a total of 9 times since they got independence in 1816. And yet, after the 2014 and 2020 defaults they were issuing debt on the global market at reasonable, normal, non-penalty rates within a short period of time. That was because the overall bond market was so low that investors were desperate for yield, hence Argentina's bond issuance got over-subscribed and so they didn't have to pay much of a penalty.

If the current high-inflation, high interest rate environment sticks around, a whole lot of things are going to end up very different, because the bond investors won't be so desperate for yield and so there will be a penalty for disrespecting the bond market. If it doesn't stick around (which seems to be the current aggregated guess of the bond market) then this will be a brief blip. Trillions of dollars rest on the answer to that question.