I think the reason sea changes seem to occur suddenly is because people are no longer inhibited by whatever it was that was holding them back before. They can't put everyone in prison, but the first few brave ones they most certainly can put in prison, and nobody wants to be one of those. So people are inhibited by that, and they put up with crap they know is wrong. The statists will inevitably screw up though, because it is their nature to continue arrogating power and authority to themselves at the expense of the citizen. At some point some citizen will decide the threat of going to jail, or being audited, or whatever, has suddenly become the 2nd worst possibility. The 1st worst possibility is compliance with their demands. When this happens to more and more citizens, it builds a momentum and lowers the threshold of inhibition for others.
I am convinced that the only thing holding back the righteous outrage of the citizenry is that nobody wants to go first, as it were. The statists will eventually push people to a point where the threatened punishment for non-compliance is somewhat less awful than the consequences of compliance.
