Yeah, I think @RG is right — in part I think A&E have completely lost control of the meta level of their narrative, and are seemingly assuming that they can control/substitute it with droning on about hope and love and family on social media.
It’s your run of the mill propaganda approach — A&E are constantly attempting to reinterpret their own show in accordance with their stated party line, no matter how poorly the evidence fits it, and hope that their audience is either stupid enough or simply indifferent enough that it’ll take everything they say at face value.
But I think more broadly there’s this overarching feeling that no one — and not even A&E — are into telling this story anymore. I think their own writing is no longer making them think — I don’t get a feeling of play or intellectual excitement from the show the way that it was so obviously there in S1. I think they are all going through the motions, and even the actors are largely, to quote Sean, “serving the writing” and not much beyond that. Even RC and Lana feel a bit lackluster these days — and I think those two are excellent indicator of overall show “morale” because they are superbly talented and also have been on this show since the start. So it seems to me that everyone is going through the motions, and the writing has devolved into typical TV show tropes that are meant to produce “drama,” but there’s very little left that’s actually thought-provoking.
I think there were some really interesting, meaty themes early on in this arc. But then they got dropped, as if following up on them required too much intellectual effort.