I wonder to what extent this behavior has been bred into people. The NPC's are a depressed bunch,  mainly (I'm assuming) because they've been robbed of their agency and live in an invisible and unknowing servitude. You could replace the term "NPC" with "broken victim of the state" pretty easily. 

I'm thinking the authoritarians causing the abuse won't be as effective as freedom tech asserts its influence and their systems continue their inevitable decay. This next decade will probably determine the true nature of the human spirit, whether it be blind obedience, or pursuit of truth and beauty. I'm obviously betting on the latter.