Like so many "good ideas" in aviation, all that happens is that the academics come up with the data from research, other academics review it and say "hmm, there's something in this", they present their findings, and occasionally it even gets turned into a safety seminar. Attendees of the seminar also come away thinking "hmmm, a lot of sense in that", and all walk away and duely disregard it on cost basis.
Then years down the track, lo and behold, an incident happens, gets investigated and the subject of that seminar that everyone's forgotten about turns out to be a contributing factor. Questions get asked, public gets swayed and only then does it get legislated, although often in watered-down form after "industry consultation", read commercial interests...
Or is my understanding of "affordable safety" off the mark?