As these people keep getting away with ignoring the constitution/law, they are being conditioned[1] to believe that nobody can/will stop them. What we've been seeing recently is the lack of fear.
Usually, threat of having to defend yourself in front of a judge keeps keeps this kind of behavior limited to smaller, often one-off events. When you have a proper Fear of getting caught, one event where you get away with some illegal and/or immoral behavior isn't a pattern yet, and so most people quietly go on with their life. After a sufficient amount of conditioning, this changes. A pattern emerges, and the idea that maybe you really can get away with anything starts to creep in. This is a rational decision on their part (Bayes Theorem obviously applies).
Worse, there seems to be a kind of "avalanche breakdown" effect in how we see our social position/role, due to the large amount of hysteresis[2] in how we interpret/rationalize our own social standing. The feedback loop between these two effects is probably why the current situation can appear to be impossible to turn back. It certainly will be impossible if left alone and unchallenged.
The soap box hasn't worked. The ballot box is a joke (and might be rigged, depending on who you ask). The use of the jury box is still pending in some areas places, and has failed in others. I would love to be wrong about this, but... nothing will change until the ammo box has been used to kill at least a few.
So I guess we should start preparing for the Civil War. /sigh/
Too many people are treating this technical problem like it's a political problem. Our communications infrastructure is vulnerable to eavesdropping; hence, eavesdropping occurs. That's not going to change unless the war you desire involves either destroying all communications networks or upgrading them.
It is a political problem. Technical solutions don't matter when the other side has an effectively unimited budget and manpower.
I strongly recommend watching PHK's recent talk talk on that subject in the link above. Avoiding politics by claiming this is a technical problem is simply forfeiting any goals you may have had to the opposition without a fight. Technical issues don't mean a damn thing against the bad end of rubber hose cryptanalysis or the old Soviet trick of simply "disappearing" people, and the aren't particularly useful against the current game of gag-order-filled "National Security Letters".
THAT SAID
It is also a technical problem. As you say, there will always be people interested in eavesdropping, and the tech needs to be fixed regardless. Maybe now we can finally get some progress on that front - I've taught more people about PubKey encryption and the Web Of Trust in the last year than the previous two "B.S."[1] decades. There's still a huge amount of work to do, unfortunately.
Both aspects - political and technical - are important, and we cannot afford to neglect either.
In lieu of civil war, I anticipate us preparing a worldwide peaceful movement, in which those who would harm come to realize the value of harmonious living. It would definitely require thorough technical underpinning, but government surveillance would be irrelevant.
Usually, threat of having to defend yourself in front of a judge keeps keeps this kind of behavior limited to smaller, often one-off events. When you have a proper Fear of getting caught, one event where you get away with some illegal and/or immoral behavior isn't a pattern yet, and so most people quietly go on with their life. After a sufficient amount of conditioning, this changes. A pattern emerges, and the idea that maybe you really can get away with anything starts to creep in. This is a rational decision on their part (Bayes Theorem obviously applies).
Worse, there seems to be a kind of "avalanche breakdown" effect in how we see our social position/role, due to the large amount of hysteresis[2] in how we interpret/rationalize our own social standing. The feedback loop between these two effects is probably why the current situation can appear to be impossible to turn back. It certainly will be impossible if left alone and unchallenged.
The soap box hasn't worked. The ballot box is a joke (and might be rigged, depending on who you ask). The use of the jury box is still pending in some areas places, and has failed in others. I would love to be wrong about this, but... nothing will change until the ammo box has been used to kill at least a few.
So I guess we should start preparing for the Civil War. /sigh/
[1] e.g.: Skinner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning )
[2] The ideas taken from this RSA[3] Animate, which explains the idea better than I ever could: http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-...
[3] This RSA == The Royal Society, not the crypto by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman