Usually, threat of having to defend yourself in front of a judge keeps keeps this kind of behavior limited to smaller, often one-off events. When you have a proper Fear of getting caught, one event where you get away with some illegal and/or immoral behavior isn't a pattern yet, and so most people quietly go on with their life. After a sufficient amount of conditioning, this changes. A pattern emerges, and the idea that maybe you really can get away with anything starts to creep in. This is a rational decision on their part (Bayes Theorem obviously applies).
Worse, there seems to be a kind of "avalanche breakdown" effect in how we see our social position/role, due to the large amount of hysteresis[2] in how we interpret/rationalize our own social standing. The feedback loop between these two effects is probably why the current situation can appear to be impossible to turn back. It certainly will be impossible if left alone and unchallenged.
The soap box hasn't worked. The ballot box is a joke (and might be rigged, depending on who you ask). The use of the jury box is still pending in some areas places, and has failed in others. I would love to be wrong about this, but... nothing will change until the ammo box has been used to kill at least a few.
So I guess we should start preparing for the Civil War. /sigh/
[1] e.g.: Skinner ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning )
[2] The ideas taken from this RSA[3] Animate, which explains the idea better than I ever could: http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-...
[3] This RSA == The Royal Society, not the crypto by Rivest, Shamir and Adleman