I believe the the DoD allowed these UFO conspiracies to go on unchecked for so long because, in a way, it helped provide some additional level of secrecy. If there's a lot of noise about flying saucers, dead aliens, and revere-engineered tech from other worlds-- that sort-of helps their cause.

It seems to have gone a bit too far. Elizondo and his cohorts really latched onto that stuff and energized the UFO "community" which has a religious level of fervor about these conspiracies. They leaked the Navy "tic-tac" video, and managed to float a NYTimes story about it in 2017 that was very high profile.

Things really went over the top last summer after David Grusch testified to congress about "biologics" (aliens) in possession of the US government as well as UFO crash retrieval programs. That momentum continued with some (in)famous ufologists forming a think-tank called "The Sol Foundation". It's purpose is, presumably, to rake in government contracts to "study" this stuff.

I guess it was a wild ride while it lasted, I don't think there's going to be any consequences for the UFO conspiracy loons that started this latest UFO craze, but maybe there should be given all the attention it drew when there's more serious things to worry about?