It is true that, in practical terms, Governments cannot be primarily concerned with individual freedoms and needs. A macro perspective must be taken in order to make the sacrafices necessary in order to maintain public order.
Invariably, throughout history, there is a tipping point at which a Government becomes self-aware, and as a result, self-preserving. After that it becomes self-fulfilling. It exists to do it's work - a parasitic entity composed of it's hosts' once-independent cells.
Thinking of it that way, governments and corporations have a lot in common.
There is another tipping point, and that is when the sacrifices being made by the public overwhelm the public good being provided by Government. The result is that Government is dismantled in favor of new styles of governance: community, city-state, nomadic or tribal.
If I was a betting man, I would wager that we are going to see that tipping point not only within our lifetimes, but within a decade.
