"Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism" - oscar wilde

It lost it's sovereignty when the gov stopped communicating directly with the people and started using the media as a mouth piece. This connected the two, giving more editorial influence to the gov due to its control over who could have access to source material.