No, we are just being conditioned to accept our new life in the Police State, where a means to an end has become the end itself.

Kabuki theater.

My family on the other coast is unhappy about my not flying to see them.
but they know I am quite serious about it.

I don't believe in feeding the dark side.

Last year on one of my trips to visit family I somehow lost my drivers license, I did not discover this loss until the day before my return flight.. I assumed that since TSA rules call for a government issued picture ID that my concealed carry permits from both Oregon and Utah which have my picture and are in fact issued by governments located within the United States would be sufficient for this purpose since they are actually harder to get than a drivers license and require thorough backround checks... It ends up being a quite wrong assumption they refuse to recognize these as legal ID's and ran men through all the hoops they could including a pat down and complete search of my single little carry on and laptop case...they were rude, intrusive and bullying.. they were arrogant and overbearing..
I travel quite a bit really and have found that under most circumstances they have been reasonably polite and in some cases downright nice, in other cases overbearing arrogant and rude.. in several cases quite lax in their inspections by allowing me to go through with boots still on and liquid containers in my bags that I had forgotten about and were over their limits.. we are paying the freight for a half assed system that checks people out as they go into gate areas and sends freight aboard with very cursory examinations at best....