So after the moon landings public interest started fading quickly for space programs. NASA didn't have enough funds to both continue Apollo programs and develop the Space Shuttle so they wound down Apollo early to best use the budget they had. When a large program like that ends production is shut down, people leave companies and the unique skill sets required to build those products disappears.
So yeah truly we just haven't had a compelling enough interest to devote the necessary funds to go back. Also the Moon doesn't offer super unique research opportunities.
Also there is some incredibly interesting reading on the Russian Moon program. Your belief that they didn't want to go says that largely the effort to cover up their failed moon program was mostly a success towards the average person. The Russian spent a ton of money on their N1 rocket which failed on launch 4 times and then was cancelled and they ordered everything be destroyed.
So yeah truly we just haven't had a compelling enough interest to devote the necessary funds to go back. Also the Moon doesn't offer super unique research opportunities.
Also there is some incredibly interesting reading on the Russian Moon program. Your belief that they didn't want to go says that largely the effort to cover up their failed moon program was mostly a success towards the average person. The Russian spent a ton of money on their N1 rocket which failed on launch 4 times and then was cancelled and they ordered everything be destroyed.