//Somehow 40,000 new cases each day and many days with 200+ deaths no longer seems to register.//
The number of cases does not matter. In any case the seven day average is currently c.34,300 and it has fallen by more than 27% since it peaked on 23rd October.
The current seven day average death toll is 163. This is around 10% of daily deaths. A proper analysis of those deaths is required to establish whether Covid was the cause of death or simply the catalyst (as pneumonia often is when patients have serious underlying problems).
I don't think the public are under the impression that the pandemic is over (at least, not those who accept there was one ongoing in the first place). Instead I believe the public (and most importantly, the government) seem to have moved to the position where it is accepted that the virus is now endemic, it will spread, most of those who catch will either not know they have it or will suffer few symptoms, but unfortunately some will develop serious symptoms and some of those will unfortunately die (as people do from all sorts of conditions).
The danger is that there still seems to be an underlying threat that restrictions (which have serious consequences) will be re-introduced in order to control demand on the NHS. Well that didn't work last time. All it did was delay the demand so as we now have a situation where almost 6m people are waiting for treatment, a backlog that will take a decade or more to clear. But of course the lucky ones were those who contracted Covid. They were treated as a priority and without delay. People suffering from other equally serious life-threatening conditions had to take a back seat and for many of them the delay was fatal.
Yes, bob, a lot of people have died, some as a direct result from Covid, others for whom it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The restrictions you mention which mitigate other threats (such as bombs on planes and rabid dogs) do not inflict the sort of harm that the measures taken up to last May have inflicted on the population, businesses and the economy (including, most importantly, untreated illness). That's why it's important that this shift of attitude is maintained and restrictions are not used as a routine method of controlling demand on the NHS. If that is allowed to get a hold the country will face restrictions every winter because, for so long as I can remember, the NHS has always faced a "crisis" each and every winter.