WASHINGTON

It was bound to happen: the loosening of America's rivet-tight preoccupation with terrorism and a return to the usual concerns about the economy - layoffs, deficits, and ways to get America moving again.

While the rearrangement of the national consciousness has been gradual and remains incomplete, it is nonetheless perceptible. Coming even before the three-month observance of the worst terrorist attack in history, the shift is apparent both in polls and in everyday conversations at the gym and the supper table.

The drift toward "normal" doesn't mean people have forgotten. What happened is too searing for that. But it does speak to a certain pragmatic, get-on-with-it facet of the American character - and to the success of the war effort itself. It also suggests that official Washington will need to heed the public's diversifying agenda.

America's focus on issues besides terrorism is borne out in recent polls by both Democrats and Republicans. This week, Democracy Corps, a Democratic polling and research group, released a survey showing the economy and jobs have eclipsed terrorism and security as the nation's No. 1 concern. It's close, though, at 37 percent to 35 percent. Other issues are back on the national radar screen, the poll found, particularly health and education.

A Republican poll last month found the economy to be the top concern in every part of the country except the eastern seaboard from Maine to Virginia, where terrorism still comes first.

"Gradually, people are getting back to normal," says Bill McInturff, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the GOP survey.

Two things seem to be at play in this shift. First, the tragedy grows more distant with each passing day, and no new attacks linked to Al Qaeda have occurred on US soil. (The source of the anthrax attacks remains a mystery.)

The second is the successful and unexpectedly swift prosecution of the war in Afghanistan. "There is a sense that the administration is handling this well," says Stanley Greenberg, pollster to former presidential candidate Al Gore and a founder of Democracy Corps.

To the degree that Americans see this as an urgent time of war, it stands to bolster President Bush as their standard-bearer. The president plans to mark the three-month anniversary by playing the National Anthem at the White House at precisely 8:46 a.m. Tuesday. He has asked other nations to play their anthems at the same time to signal to terrorists that "we won't forget what took place."

But Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, sees "perils" for Mr. Bush as the nation's focus on terrorism fades. Some issues now back in vogue - such as helping the unemployed - play to the Democrats' strengths, he says. With joblessness jumping to 5.7 percent, the highest rate in six years, politics are "moving to territory that is much more conducive to Democrats' issues."

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