If everyone used encryption, and they started doing this, we could at least get rid of the facade of "we are not attempting to pool power in a way that will lead to a police state." It would be a bald-faced power-play.

Exactly. It means the pretense evaporates, and that the sheep wake up.

I mean, if some government agent rifles through their stuff in the cloud, the sheep don't care. But if they knock on the sheep's door and do it, then the sheep is going to get angry, if he's innocent.

At least if they had to force you to decrypt, you would know that they had access to your data and they couldn't read it secretly. Also, forcing you to decrypt something would presumably require an order from a judge, which would presumably require the police to show probable cause.

I don't see why all those presumptions shouldn't be true for accessing unencrypted email. But maybe you're right that more traditional ways of storing files would lead to more traditional interpretations of the law.