Are controversy and uncertainty used as tools to make humans pay more attention, or to keep them distracted?

You are hitting the nail on the head with this question because we can tell you that the vast majority of what governments do, and their officials, are designed to distract, to mislead, to misdirect, and to misfire in fundamental ways. There is much make-work that is widely touted as progress. There are many things created to benefit special interests that hurt the general public and the progress of humanity solely to enrich the power brokers. That is usually the highest priority of government, to see to their care and feeding. This is the primary purpose of politics, to create an ongoing circus with an array of sideshows to keep people distracted from the fact little is getting done that is of genuine value for the nation and the world. Major problems go unattended, suffering continues unabated, and things get worse across the board. These may be covered up very adroitly through manipulation of statistics, selective reporting, and display of seeming successes that are given an emphasis in the press but are largely minor advances or something even quite meaningless that sounds good, whereas the festering problems continue unremarked and unobserved by the majority of citizens. Only those living in the nightmare can see the truth—they are being ignored.