The only thing that seems to have changed is the invasiveness of the lunatic legislation. A century ago they were content to meddle with Mathematical constants; today, they insist of legislating how much water our toilets flush, what animals we can keep as pets, the temperature of the water in a commercial laundromat, and how many over-the-counter cold tablets we can buy at one time.
I swear these politicians will not be satisfied until they can rule the way the guerrilla leader in Woody Allen's "Bananas" did when he became dictator of some fictitious South American sh*thole:
"Henceforth, citizens will be required to change their underwear every day. To make it easier for the government to assure compliance, everyone is required to wear their underwear on the outside of their clothes..."