Media. Then go on to explain why.
or...
Government. Then go on to explain why
Two halves of the same pile of crap.
So, how about answering your own mental exercise?
Basically you are asking what is more powerful? The pen or the sword? I say the pen.
Why is it that the first thing a dictator does is take over the Department of Information or Interior? Because ideas are stronger than tanks. Governments rise and fall. The power of philosophy and propaganda is ever present. Rousseau was more dangerous than Napoleon ever was. The USSR fell without a shot.
When the media sides with the government it is no different than when a dictator controls the media. The media is supposed to be the fulcrum. But when the media becomes the propaganda then all balance is lost. Words so easily rouse the ill-informed masses.
The government can take my gun, but never my freedom. Solzhenitsyn said he felt more free in the Gulag than his captors. The media silences and subverts a whole culture with political correctness.
America has changed because of words like equality, justice, and the most powerful word of all - Fairness.
The Pen has changed America not tanks in the streets.
And it is the Pen that writes the laws.
The Media.
Politicians have been corrupt since the beginning of time.
Freedom of the press was written into the constitution to keep the politicians honest.
The reason things have gotten this bad is the press is complicit in corruption.