1913 ish, things turned. Wilson, the FED, [failed] League of Nations. Advent of radio and decline of education ... all of these trace back to the early 1910's.
I wouldn't say delusions though. The subterfuge is done in the open. The public is manipulated via selective sharing and molding of information. It's easy once you have control of enough of the information flow and the people become passive consumers of information.
Study the court decisions, especially the constitutional law ones. It's almost as though somebody flipped a light switch. Rank dishonesty kicked in, in the late 1930's.
At this point the whole thing is a massive house of cards. It's going to collapse of its own weight at some point, it can't be sustained. I'm of a mind that the inevitable collapse is viewed as desirable by the elites, because such social upheaval is violent, and the elites tend to profit from violence and wars.
Ah! This is a Federal Reserve note, issued by a Private bank! They control us with Debt, and put little owl figures in their currency! (Whoo is preying upon Whom?)
I do not think there is any absolute freedom, we all exist in different states of dependency, and I think it is supposed to be that way. We are supposed to need God and other humans.
That said, i think there are communities/countries (systems of human support and dependence) that are preferable to others. Our organization is preferable to most or all, even given our overlord parasites. There are some that are toxic, dangerous, and destructive. You know who they are.