Not necessarily. I think it was allowed to progress, for various reasons. Not just the 911 incident, but terrorism in general since 1973. (watch ‘The Road to 911’. That’s what I think.)
Was it used by internal control freaks to further undermine the sovereignty of free people? Yep. Did America deserve to have our freedoms undermined? In many ways, yes. As a culture, we worry about Hollywood morons more than anything of real substance. The founders uttered dark prophecies about this.
Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. We are asleep at the switch.