The scariest thing about Don’t Look Up is that as absurd as it is, it barely exaggerates. Much of our political elite are just as greedy and foolish, our media just as vapid, and our response to impending disaster exactly as mind-bogglingly irrational as in the movie.
I think Katrina is the opposite example. It's the example of government action failing and being insufficient coupled with the nightmares unleashed by hitting every problem with the military hammer or even worse using mercenaries instead. Bush would've acted on covid and used it to unleash the patriot act v2. Now the federal government just says "that's on y'all lol" anytime a hurricane destroys the gulf or some other disaster arises. That's why I think Bush was the last president that would've acted on covid. Not because he's a unique individual but because he burnt that bridge himself and no one after him had the legitimacy to actually act on something like that. Certainly not succeed though. The US absolutely did not have the capacity to face the challenge of covid successfully like China did. But maybe you're right, maybe the structure was already too eroded by 2000 for any action to happen.
Obama's response to the swine flu was basically "wash yo hands nasty ass" and that was really it. It's amazing we dodge that fucking Ebola outbreak and it didn't get significantly worse here, but ebola has LOWER transmissibility because it is so lethal.
I think you make a good point. I was a kid during Bush Jr so my memory/analysis could be too presentist. We won't know because it's impossible to go back in time and check though.