No, they are incompetent because they don't have enough evidence gathered to convince a judge ask the person to reveal their password as a court order. They're trying to go around the system, or pretend a different system exists to get people to incriminate themselves. Judges have ordered people to reveal passwords many times, and that is legal - and thus subject to the legal process, legal review and appeals, etc.
Too much hassle for the DOJ, they want to 'force' people to give up their secret info. Fuck 'em. They have no legal basis, there is no motivation to comply. If you find yourself in this situation, have YOUR LAWYER tell them, that you retain your 5th Amendment rights and you will not give up the password, unless they agree to give you permanent blanket immunity to anything that might be found or stem from the machine search, let you out of whatever they arrested you for, and give you a few million for your trouble.