Why Britain's carrier programme did not dovetail in wartime

Why did Britain's strike-carrier and battle-carrier programme fail to come together neatly during the Second World War?

War arrived before the planned sequence matured, Atlantic escorts took priority, and Henderson's death removed the officer most able to keep the programme politically coherent.

The question links delays to Implacable and Audacious with the rush to build Atlantic escorts. War arrived before the Royal Navy's expected timetable could turn its related carrier concepts into a balanced force. Immediate convoy protection displaced ships whose value lay in the longer rebuilding programme. Henderson's death also removed a senior officer who had connected design, doctrine, and political support. The resulting wartime fleet therefore reflected interrupted plans rather than the complete pre-war concept.