It's really funny how big states today have solved the problem of public outrage at wholesale censorship and surveillance, simply by introducing it 10 times slower than all those goosestepping predecessors.
Definitely. Just take one tiny step at a time. No one will notice and it all just seems normal: "It's always been like that." No, it hasn't always been like that. The tiny steps got you to the same place, it just took longer.
I've talked to some people of the "relative of a bureaucrat\politician" kind. If it makes this emotionally easier for you, they know that they are the bad people.
They just think they are smarter and stronger and thus deserve to screw people.
That's the same method politicians have done to get controversial bills passed. Because they know they can't pass something like "ANNEX AMERICAN PRIVACY ACT" right there out in the open. It'll get shot down. Political suicide just to get it on the docket.
But if they do just enough bills that pass to make people think things are going okay, when we least expect it, they'll lump it in the next big budget bill and it'll become law. Then we'll all go "Huh, wha?" before we know it.