it's becoming clear that the citizens are willing to give up any privacy and liberty they have left
I think it is important to make a distinction between privacy and liberty; privacy would be your ability to prevent others from having access to information that you have, and liberty is a more general freedom to do all sorts of things. Privacy is a subset of liberty. For example, I may be willing to give up privacy, but I may, at the same time, push for greater liberties in other areas, such as consuming marijuana.
We should understand the benefits of privacy. In the previous example, I may use privacy to consume marijuana without facing the legal consequences. On the other hand, I may be failing to liberate marijuana by consuming it privately and pushing the issue of privacy instead. Of course, we can work towards multiple goals simultaneously. Still, this is advocating privacy in order to circumvent the law, not the noblest of reasons, but certainly one which is widespread. One might suggest this as a negative for privacy, but this perception will probably depend on your perception of the current laws. In the worst case, the laws might seem good and the benefits of a loss in privacy may seem worthy enough to create a transparent society, which could then change the laws into something draconian.
There are other benefits of privacy, I won't cover them all. Another one is the capitalistic motivation to innovate. Without privacy, innovations could become public domain without as much benefit to the inventor. On the other hand, your secret stash of magnet-based free energy devices would be more likely to reach fruition if they were made public, creating more immediate benefits for society as a whole. Here's a quote to chew on: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit" -Harry Truman.
It's not like privacy would ever go away. We have our private thoughts and public key cryptography. Are cameras over public spaces so different from random patrols by the police? Shouldn't we feel safer that violent crime is in decline as the dark spaces in our cities become illuminated?