Or how about the fact that somehow this vast surveillance apparatus seems to function perfectly when it is being used against ordinary people, fails constantly when it is needed to protect them, and somehow never catches a single person in the ultra-wealthy elite?

I think the term you are referring to is "Anarcho-Tyranny"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Francis_(writer)

It's funny, David Brin used to flog the idea of "sousveillance," meaning that mass surveillance was inevitable and couldn't be reformed but we could use it to hold the elite accountable. What a joke.