I blame the good guys for being afraid of the Internet at first, slow to stake a claim, easily manipulated by such things as "dot com boom and bust" , and then easily scared away again if the bad guy roars ... should I also mention that they are perfectly willing to hand over the power to the most unstable of organizations like oh ... the UN? ... Just my old lady view of events though.
So, the short version is: Yes. I believe you are correct in your assessment of the situation.
However, I'm not old enough to help you out regarding the adoption of telephones and cars.
I can tell you that there is great controversy around the invention of the telephone and that "the get away car" is probably the most famous car of all.