I think if you looked over the last 50 years, you’d actually see a collapse in trust in large institutions. I think what we’re seeing, in the US at least, is an authoritarian response from these institutions (government / media / academia) to the threats posed by the internet and their general decline in prestige since the 70s.

See the other comment in this thread that free speech has been “weaponized” and therefor presumably must be curtailed “for our own good.”