I can see your point.

Yes, it is part of the plan to let people believe the regime is more powerful than it is, especially in authoritarian regimes like the US has became already. That said, Authoritarianism is a spectrum and even in countries fairly down he road, like Hungary, the regime can fall, astonishingly even voted out of power if the people start to see through the charade. In other cases however the regime is powerful enough to stay in power by spilling enough blood. The US is still in transition, there are still parts of the system that work and fight back with the executive not being able to ignore it, yet. In my view many people are not aware how far down the road the US already is, at the point where free and fair elections are starting to be critically endangered (building upon the previous erosion by gerry mandering, desinfrachisment, Super PACs ...). However you are right that also the contrary misleading view is dangerous, that the fight is already over and the authoritarians are already all powerful.