There is a quiet process that happens when freedom starts disappearing. It rarely arrives as an obvious ban. It arrives as reasonable requests. Safety. Responsibility. Cooperation. Each request sounds moderate on its own. Together they form a system where the original freedom no longer exists in practice.
The people who notice early are usually called paranoid. The people who notice late are already adapting to the new limits. The ones who refuse to adapt become isolated.
That’s the real mechanism. Not dramatic tyranny. Gradual, reasonable, well explained control.