A soon as you have significant regulation, you now have unwanted coupling between government and industry. The rest is just inevitable.<p>I love your bit about PR - that&#x27;s beyond true. But it&#x27;s the sort of thing that, once you see it, it doesn&#x27;t really scare you any more. It&#x27;s all very silly in the end.<p>The rest? People don&#x27;t have strong mechanisms for identity any more. They don&#x27;t live on the same land all their lives, they may or may not have strong affiliation with an extended family,  so more ephemeral things creep in. I have friends who rant about the Left or the Right, and when you get &#x27;em calmed down, at their core they&#x27;re usually pretty centrist, but they depend on political entertainment product too much. And political entertainment product is rapidly going self-referential - this week&#x27;s FOX story is a volley-hit back from last week&#x27;s CNN story, ad nauseum. It&#x27;s just cheap air time with delusions of grandeur.