Is There a High Probability of Aliens Being the Universe?

If there are aliens around, why haven't we seen them? Let's assume that the drake equation is roughly the right way to do it. Theres thousands of alien civilizations. What would be the most likely explanations for why we see nothing? I think the main confusion that comes from the fermy paradox is the fact that we're not picking up, like, radio signals a because we know th as soon as we could make radio signals, we were transmitting them very willinerly into space.