I find it interesting that this seems to be an exclusively American conservative phenomenon

Probably because you don't follow local news. In Germany, the consequences of the COVID Pandemic restrictions still being discussed in the Parlament. The so called "Corona-Enquete-Kommission". I can imagine that other countries still do the same, specially when Law and Order was done following some premise that people are legally fighting against and in some cases winning.. it's a mess, but not an "American conservative phenomenon"