One aspect to consider is the history of corporations. In the 1800s, when corporations began to proliferate in the US, they existed only with the permission of State Governments. The idea was that if they didn't behave themselves, their License to exist would be yanked. And the Licenses had to be renewed every few years, typically five.
That changed over time, and someone has probably written a good book footnoting/documenting the process.
Without writing that book, I would submit that it was a combination of things. Those who assemble the pieces play "the long game", and are patient.
The public lost interest in following what was going on in government long before our modern electronic goodies.
Conscientious government officials were gradually replaced with those who weren't (buying elections, campaign donations, blackmail, stuffing the ballot box with fake ballots, all the usual stuff).
Newspapers became dependent on advertisers, and to keep the advertising monies flowing, learned to keep quiet about things the advertisers didn't want disclosed. Consolidation of newspapers and book publishers. Modern propaganda techniques, and the technologies were introduced to make those techniques far more effective.
"Public Schools", where teaching logical thinking and critical thinking skills were gradually removed. Jon Rappoport and John Taylor Gatto covered that aspect extensively; see also the book, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America".
One aspect to consider is the history of corporations. In the 1800s, when corporations began to proliferate in the US, they existed only with the permission of State Governments. The idea was that if they didn't behave themselves, their License to exist would be yanked. And the Licenses had to be renewed every few years, typically five.
That changed over time, and someone has probably written a good book footnoting/documenting the process.
Without writing that book, I would submit that it was a combination of things. Those who assemble the pieces play "the long game", and are patient.
The public lost interest in following what was going on in government long before our modern electronic goodies.
Conscientious government officials were gradually replaced with those who weren't (buying elections, campaign donations, blackmail, stuffing the ballot box with fake ballots, all the usual stuff).
Newspapers became dependent on advertisers, and to keep the advertising monies flowing, learned to keep quiet about things the advertisers didn't want disclosed. Consolidation of newspapers and book publishers. Modern propaganda techniques, and the technologies were introduced to make those techniques far more effective.
"Public Schools", where teaching logical thinking and critical thinking skills were gradually removed. Jon Rappoport and John Taylor Gatto covered that aspect extensively; see also the book, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America".