That's true of a lot of sci fi, but the more imaginative authors foresaw many of the tensions and trade-offs between technology, commercialism and government.

That's true of a lot of sci fi, but the more imaginative authors foresaw many of the tensions and trade-offs between technology, commercialism and government. I have vague memories of Philip K Dick short stories in which consumers are egged on to never fix but repeatedly buy new versions of technologies, because the old ones are built with limited lifespans, or the new versions have some superficially attractive feature with dubious actual value. The story "Foster, you're dead!" springs to mind. Consumers are pressured into buying newer and newer bomb shelters in order to protect themselves from an imaginary enemy with constantly improving imaginary capabilities. The more general idea that advances in technology would remove agency from the masses feels quite old, you can see the seeds of it in Brave New World for example.