[softball]

Where did it all go wrong? The most effective way to mollify a populace is to create a state of fear and a struggle. When I lived in the Soviet Union during the cold war, they kept the population under their thumb by creating a struggle for peace.
This administration created a struggle for safety.
This contributes to an on going state of fear and a cowed population and the government can do what it likes, until it runs out of resources as we are witnessing.
I disagree with you about protests. The cumulative effect of large rallies is something a government cannot withstand. We see it in France today when labour organizations hit the streets. More to the point, it ended the Viet Nam war. When people forget that power or are too afraid or fat to wield it, then the government is given a free hand to run amuck. It does way more than cause traffic jams and minor disruption. Kent State was hardly a minor disruption or a blip in a news cycle.
It is the only hope the citizenry have when their elected or empowered elite become megalomaniacs.