Harry, it’s much more complicated than this. Yes, many people don’t want politics in their entertainment, especially politics they disagree with, but dramatic changes in viewing habits and the fact that not many people have seen the nominated films are the biggest factors.
Murdoch’s mainstream disinformation and others like to bash Hollywood’s current emphasis on inclusiveness as part of strategy to deflect from the real cause of the angst many Americans feel with the diminishing middle class—both major political parties in the U.S. primarily answer to the same international corporations and investment interests. The Democrats favor an inclusive international corporate meritocracy, with many restraints on speech and behavior in the workplace, and the Republicans have shifted from Reagan/Bush conservatism to the Silvio Berlusconi model of autocratic populism favored by Putin. This model further concentrates wealth at the very top, and as a calculated strategy inflames emotions over nationalism, race, and cultural divides to direct anger away from oligarchs, billionaires and the economic elite.
A good populist politician is like a master magician mesmerizing the television crowd with emotional manipulation and slight-of-hand misdirection. The trick is to get followers to see the leader as one of them, but also standing above them. Using coarse language and attacking existing power structures gives the illusion of being “of the people” and an outsider attacking the establishment for the common man. The populist leader must also be seen as extraordinary and as the ultimate authority whose rule cannot be questioned. That’s the populist formula being used today.