That would be nice but I think the beasts have outgrown their masters in a lot of respects. How can a government that changes every 4-8 years keep a rein on secretive agencies that have no expiry date. If the likes of the NSA and FBI are forced to stop by laws then can't they just get Australia's ASIC/ASIO for example to tell them what they want to know? They are already sharing data across allied nations and using those alliances to get around restrictive laws against spying on their own citizens.
Then you have the likes of China and Russia and the sense of "if they have that technology/information at their disposal, we need it too"
For me it's not even a question of trusting my government or being patriotic, its about not taking the future for granted and not knowing who has access to that data and how they will interpret it. It wasn't all that long ago that Japan was knocking on Australia's door for example. Who will be making decisions on that data in 50 years? Will my children be punished for something I said on Phuks in 2018? Look at the other thread here about AI killing everyone and now think of a cold-hearted machine going through everything you ever said and deciding if your genes and DNA need to be eliminated by wiping out all your descendants. Maybe I read too much fiction though. I hope that's the case.
I'm with you for the most part but I remain optimistic that something like AI will cause a massive problem and people will wake up and realize its because we have no privacy anymore that "thing a" happened and demand all of this shit stop.