After every war we go for cheaper faster lighter unarmored vessels. When the shooting starts suddenly we don’t have enough ships that can withstand combat and there is an about face and armored vessels are built in time to be mothballed when the shooting stops and new sleeker faster cooler unarmored vessels can be built.
The Russians I take it don’t do this? The Kirov class was able to take a lot of punches.
Problem is, no one in ANY administration will EVER build the big ships we want...like battleships.