Diff Enemy, Diff times, Diff methods, Diff ideals, but the idea is that now we are at war, we are scared so we allow more freedoms to be taken away as a country. This has been done numerous times since Lincoln and maybe even earlier. However just because now it doesn't seem to be that way, should America ever find itself not at war with the radical muslims (s/t Mr. Obama seems to be working very hard to accomplish at all costs) there is no reason to assume that security will not become more lax.
Two reasons actually to assume it will,
1. cost of operating such high(?) standards
2. loss of privacy (rights)
In fact we are already beginning to see some push back in regards to point 2.