It is good when the government fears it’s citizens.
It is bad when the idiot citizens give the government so much power over their lives that while the government still fears some of the citizenry it doesn’t fear most of the citizentry because they are beholden to the government for basic survival.
So now you have less than 50% of the population that fears the government and a government that fears less than 50% of it’s government.
This is when government tyranny starts to assert itself.
It's not tyranny when they are doing it for our own good.