[Someone]

> You still need to hire someone to do the mass surveillance and policing

Someone, yes, but not millions, maybe not even thousands anymore.

The Stasi needed 1 in 40 of the working population as informers (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/03/lessons-from-...), but large parts of surveillance can be automated now.

For policing, you may not need that much, either. To put out smaller fires, you only need local superiority in numbers. That can be achieved by having a small force that can be rapidly deployed.

For large uprisings, you can use drones. You’ll want to avoid that, though because that isn’t guaranteed to keep you in power.