I think it's actually worse than that. Obviously I have only anecdotal evidence, but as far as I can tell, a large minority (maybe even a small majority) of people support what the NSA has been doing. They don't necessarily understand the technical details, but they completely understand the implications and consequences and they explicitly approve. When I go outside of my usual online and real life social circles the attitude about government surveillance is shockingly complicit.
I'm starting to believe the only way to change this isn't to get people outraged or make them understand the effects of pervasive surveillance on freedom. The solution is to instead make it clear just how ineffective it is at its stated purpose of keeping us all safe.