With my tin-foil hat on, I'm wondering if this whole Snowden thing isn't just to make people numb to the idea that they are being watched 24/7. And it seems that people don't care about privacy we can only expect things to get worse.
They were doing perfectly fine before the leaks, getting cooperation from major tech companies and other countries and their reach was constantly expanding.
It's silly to think they'd give all that up by setting in motion something which could potentially piss of its own citizens and its allies, just for the off chance that people might become numb to it. Then what happens? They continue their operations just the same way they did before?
But on a smaller scale: The Bush administration would put out a piece of legislation that was a hyperbole, watch the public/democrats react, then ram through a "less worse" bill in the guise of compromise.
Has anything changed? Has the people involved even noticed any difference, aside from some black ink in newspapers?