Suddenly there is a lot attention being paid to our previously ignored project

The project I am on has been going for more than two years; I have been on it for 11 months. My observations, and from what I have heard about the project before I joined it, until recently have established that this project was on autopilot in many ways. Things had gotten very casual.

That has changed recently. Suddenly, we are getting emails about the dress code, warnings that it is a fireable offense to "eat, drink and be merry," and a deterioration in working conditions. Now, we're getting further warnings about our behavior. Some folks on the project -- nowhere near all, which raises questions of competence -- got an email yesterday that apparently bans any activity not actually related to clicking on documents (emphasis is mine):

Good afternoon, As a reminder, please remember to keep social conversations and other distractions to a minimum while respecting your co-workers’ space and privacy. Employees are expected to use their best efforts while performing a job assignment and not engage in any other business or personal activity while working on an assignment which interferes with the performance of his/her job duties. Please continue to keep any conversations in the review rooms on a professional level. We appreciate your attention to the matter. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

I would think that talking to people, on the project or on the phone, about things other than the project subject matter would interfere with the performance of your job duties. Lots of temps like to think that they have their own practice, and they often have a client or two to whom they speak on the phone and act lawyer-like (except for the part where they let any random chump listen in on their side of a supposedly privileged communication. Don't get me started.), but I don't really think that's what this is aimed at.

Right before this email came out, Captain Queeg came through the room on his way out the door for the day and noticed three or four temps on my aisle who would normally sit with their backs to each other  had turned their chairs around to face each other so they could discuss the previous day's football activity. Queeg's comment when he saw this was something like, "All you guys need is a coffee table between you." Naturally, everyone ignored him, but that night, the email came (at least to those who the agency realizes are actually on the project. I am not among them. Not sure how that makes me feel.)

Now, folks are getting nervous. A low-key, low-tension project is rapidly becoming a pain in the ass. If you take the email literally, we are now the only employees in the country who are expected to completely ignore any non-work-related thoughts for the entire time we are at work. Not so easy if you are at the job site 12 or 13 hours a day, is it?

Let's face it, it isn't like this work requires our full brain power. I'm not convinced it requires a law degree, except for the fact that firms only hire people with law degrees. A reasonably intelligent high-school graduate could do this shit. So why the flak from above? Only time will tell.