Even Biden just gave up on a national mask mandate because it can't be enforced.
We have a lot of federal, state and local laws that effectively can't really be enforced and where hiding breaking the law is easier than hiding that one isn't wearing a mask.
There's a big difference between can't be enforced federally and can't be enforced anywhere. Very obvious that individual homes and many businesses can definitely 100% enforce a mask policy. Local institutions like schools a little trickier but still possible to nearly universally institute. Gets harder each step from city to state to federal to international.
Distancing policies are actually a lot harder to enforce than mask. Mask is binary. It's on or it's off. Distancing is subjective.
Crystal clear leadership from the start without mandate laws would have been the easiest thing in the world. The least we could do but somehow it was spotty across the nation.