I believe that we have an example of such "success". In Stasi era total surveillance was too expensive. Today technology made it cheap, hence we do total surveillance.

We could try to bet on technology-first approach. That means rewriting of all the stacks, create automated solutions that hack and/or patch systems (see DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge), hardening systems and protocols, etc. Now, this leaves us with dumb users that need to be retrained. And that can't be done.

And there is other side of things. While we wait for thing that may not happen (dark internet),

a) public money are being wasted

b) surveillance is creating chilling effect TODAY

c) wars with US involvement are raging, fuelling ranks of radicals in Arab world