Conflict itself is an inherent part of society, but the level of its impact is not. In fact, I would say that making the mediation of conflict more efficient is an integral part of progress. For example, we no longer walk around continually prepared to get into physical fights (either by training ourselves or hiring bodyguards to do it for us), but have made it so the average person does not have to deal with this conflict (for the most part).
The US legal system is basically at the stage where you either hire bodyguards (attorneys), bulk yourself up (extensive legal study), or allow yourself to be pushed around by others.
Interacting with the current legal system is nowhere as easy as you're making it out to be. As a software engineer, yes one can straightforwardly read the law, develop legal intuition, and do a decent job representing yourself. I personally have done my own deeds, administrative court filings, and contract reviews. But I recognize that doing so took many days that I could have spent doing something else. It's nice to be able understand a different system at that level, do my own work, and really know what I'm dealing with - but it's anything but free. And I don't know that I'd ever be comfortable representing myself in a trademark dispute against professional adversaries that know the system intimately.
FWIW online surveillance is basically at the same stage of development. I've got a pretty good setup of VMs, custom router, VPNs, browser extensions, etc that does a good job keeping me protected. But I recognize that this takes resources to setup and maintain, and it would be ridiculous for me to tell the average person that surveillance isn't a problem because they can "just" do what I've done.