The modern state has been GIVEN total power. Just look at this thread! There are people so complacent about their liberty that they take it as axiomatic that the government has not only a right but an obligation to regulate something they don't even own! And my sanity is impugned when I dare to differ.
And this is coming on a CONSERVATIVE site. Imagine the school-of-fish mentality that prevails on the fringes of the Left.
In any case the modern State has total power. Were we complacent or just out of ideas, who knows, but the State never stood down from wartime footing once Korea started. One thing for sure, the State seems to want to keep development of outer space, and the Deep Sea for that matter, to itself. Property rights seems to be a sticking point, the State just won't move from its present dominant position, and it knows know quite well that no individual can challenge the State for long. We don't even know what the State IS or where it came from. There is plenty of study of where the primitive states came from and come from, but not the modern State. It's a new thing and we don't have the philosophy. All these idea-based states from the past seem to be merging into this new thing.