Numerous evolutionary biologists and psychologists would counter that fear does exactly what is desired -focuses attention on what is dangerous and primes muscles, breathing, and heart to exert maximal force to flee or fight.

If the saber tooth tiger is about to pounce on you, you don't want to be computing -oh, she's about forty feet away, and she can leap twenty feet in 418 milliseconds, so in .836 seconds I could be....gone. You just want to get the heck out of there.

Whether the response gets triggered in ancient or modern times for situations that aren't truly dangerous doesn't belie an evolutionary advantage to how the panic system works.

https://medium.com/wise-well/only-you-can-prevent-panic-attacks-8710b84c7e05