The argument made here by the R-G is false, that the problem is that the government has the right to search your phone under certain legal restrictions and Apple is not allowing that. Of course they do, and Apple is in no way hindering their search. They have simply been unsuccessful. 

But that is not the problem. Apple has spent billions of dollars making a secure and easy to use product, something of high value and utility to virtually every one of their customers. They have done such a good job that now the government wants them to make a key so the security can be defeated. Once a key exists, the problem is one of keeping that key out of the wrong hands, which is infinitely more difficult to do than if the key does not exist and requires extreme technical knowledge and many millions of dollars in engineering efforts to produce. Nor will it only be used once; it will be used without end. And 1 billion Apple users will know that their data is less secure than before.