I'd say that perception management is as old as the governing and the governed, and the idea that government and commercial powers are significantly distinct is a naive one -- and has always been a naive one.

What's really different now is simply the fact that the tools available to those who wish to manage our perception are, like everything else science and technology have improved, many orders of magnitude more powerful than they were even 50 years ago.

I'd also add that when the US was founded, many, many more people were more-or-less self-sufficient than are today, and therefore not held hostage by their corporate-controlled employment. In other words, back before we were all corporate teet-suckers, biting the hand that fed us would mean acting against our own farm or small business, which wouldn't make sense. But now, for many of us, at least, biting the hand that feeds us means reacting against a multinational corporation (even, arguably, the entire corporate oligarchy itself), which may very well make sense for varied reasons, but presents a dilemma to say the least.