.. identified the villain with brass-knuckled clarity: the decline of critical, open debate was due to the corrupting influence of concentrated power. Truer words have never been spoken. And yet… Updating his 1962 analysis in 2023, Habermas, the patrician-academic, chose to fuss over topics like “algorithmic steering”— a quaint concern akin to adjusting picture frames while the house collapses into a sinkhole.

"Adjusting picture frames while the house collapses into a sinkhole" sums up much of the opposition in the US ATM

However, it's not clear to me how "concentrated power" has lead to "the decline of critical, open debate" ?