The govt is doing the searching. It is a rights issue.
Bingo, you are correct. This has nothing to do with the airlines, it is all about the government denying you access to a publicly funded facility (the airport).
I will tolerate a magnatometer and/or the puffer, but NEVER Xray and sexual assualt on my person in the name of “security”.
Fully 75% of the people with access to the aircraft never go through these enhanced searches. No one on the line, no bag-smashers, no fuelers, no catering,no gate agents, no poop suckers, and surely no mechanics.