"to be seen to be doing something"

In the security realm we have security theater. In the social realm, we have compassion theater. "We are spending money on problem X" shows that the supporters of the spending care about people with problem X. Any proposed cut to that spending shows that the opponents to the spending hate people with with problem X and don't want to help them. Meanwhile, the money actually supports those in charge of the spending and various suppliers of goods and services.

"Effortless action": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

I've seen this mentioned in the context of leadership. Someone said the best leaders get people to do things they wanted to do anyway. They just act as a kind of meeting point (or 'lightning rod', take your pick) that senses the general mood, and figures out a way forward that most of the group can agree with. Repeated (sometimes continuous) back-and-forth is important here.

In politics it's often the other way around: many people are unhappy, politician comes up with a plan to do something, and tries to push that through. Such action often fails as it -mostly- ignores feedback from the people the changes are imposed upon.

Acknowledging a problem is important. But more important is understanding the problem through the eyes of those affected by it, understanding how an action would change things from that point of view, and adjusting control knobs as you go. Few leaders are good at ALL those things.

> aim is to be seen to be doing something.

A signal of an act. Not the act itself. Post l-modernisms ugly head rears itself once again.