The alternative, unfortunately, is that either organized crime or non-democratic governments (or a combination of both) would be the biggest meanest hackers.
And hacking doesn't really scale. Mass surveillance just through attacking individuals with malware isn't possible, because of limited "talent" and a fear for exposing the tools, like just happened.
Building backdoors into systems or encryption schemes, on the other hand, isn't exactly hacking but does scale well to undiscriminate spying on millions of people.
The main issue is that intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the western world aren't bound to judicial control as tightly as they should. It also seems that a majority of voters either consent to these powers, or don't care. When politicians want to appear "acting decisively" after terrorist attacks, or foreign hacking incidents, it's not just because they like to do so. They know that, if they don't, voters will disapprove.