Rulers who take power from outside a society lack native legitimacy, so they court the local elite by championing that elite's own moral tradition. Restoring old values to public life becomes a way of saying 'we govern as you would want to be governed.'
A government can loudly uphold a value while refusing the real sacrifices that genuine commitment would demand, such as giving up officials' service for long mourning periods. The result is that the value is quietly but forcefully undermined, not revived, even as the official rhetoric keeps celebrating it.
When a state takes charge of a moral rite and makes it an obligation of office, the rite turns into administrative procedure. Rules about who must perform it, and when, start to govern a practice that once rested on personal and family duty.