The Big Corporate Giants do their fair share of suppression of tech that would threaten their market share. The Feds will also clamp down on anything they arbitrarily define as threatening National Security.

Forced buy outs, Assassinations, lobbying, Corporate Espionage, outright espionage, blackmail etc.

Education or the lack there of also plays a part. They’ve watered down subjects immensely. Cut off the typical outlets for those who aren’t necessarily inclined towards conventional academics. They’ve made every effort to crush the spirit of discovery and desire to fill in the empty spaces of the maps. That’s something that shouldn’t be forgotten or forgiven.

They’ve done everything possible to perpetuate ignorance and blindness. They want people to be able to meet a bare minimum required to maintain some semblance of modern society. Not advance it. Slowly but surely Humanity is adapting and circumventing their barriers. But it’ll be slow for the foreseeable future as people continue to adapt.