What does 60 years of silence tell us about the search for extraterrestrials?

Aliens are big in the news recently, fueled by congressional hearings about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), formally known as UFOs. But while the idea of aliens visiting Earth may be exciting, the better bet is still the idea that aliens might exist on distant worlds. We already know potentially habitable planets are common and intelligent life has arisen on at least one world, so why not many? But after 60 years of searching for evidence of extraterrestrials "out there," we've found nothing. So what does that tell us?