Pendulums in physics present some interesting questions and formulas. Adjusting them in clocks is more an art than a science. If done without gloves, a little extra weight is added and modifies the prescription. There is a time commitment involved with adjusting time.
In politics, other communal efforts, and conversations—pendulums are problematic. At issue here is not adjustment toward an agreed-upon recording of time past. Power over others has now raised its head.
Elections and appointments tend toward being zero-sum games. There is no analysis of where we are in relation to what makes for long-term sustainability. When an opportunity comes to make a next series of decisions, there is only knee-jerk reversal.
Rarely does such a reversal come when the pendulum is at its limit and ready to begin another cycle—slowing down and slowly beginning to revisit its path. This translates into shorter and shorter periodicity. Eventually, there is nothing left to reverse. Stasis arrives, and books are written to explain the great fall or whimpering-away of another unit of attempted civilization.
Pendulums have their work to do but utterly fail at being translated out of their milieu.
In human terms, pendulums do not measure time regularly but are a sign of a shortening of time left to get an act together, get over the hubris of having the right answer to any relational question, or attempt to apply Newtonian physics in a quantum context.
A pendulum effect in governance will turn a supposed Supreme Court into a mediocre mouthpiece of a deservedly bygone time.