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A large, perhaps majority, of the government, didn't know what was happening.

It is the government's own claim that, for example, the President didn't know what the NSA was doing:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/politics/white-house-stopped-w...

In the absence of leaks and whistleblowing, how do you propose that this kind of power be reined in?

Whistleblowers like Snowden are apparently a necessary check within our government, when one of them finds such widespread blatantly unconstitutional activity occurring. (I upvoted you for your point though.)