Maybe It's Just Wishful Thinking on my Part

But US society is becoming gradually more progressive on some things, gay marriage most famously and recreational drug use as well.  Should our liberalizing trend in regards to drugs continue I wonder, how will the nation's police deal.  As we move ever further from the extreme violent crime rates of the seventies and eighties,  (and yes crime is still going down)  how will our police police deal with the loss of prestige they must suffer as an incidental consequence of social improvement?  Because the day will come when they are no longer seen as by far the most important force in maintaining social welfare, when they are no longer given first priority in state and local budgets without thought or challenge, when drugs are no longer seen as so fiendishly evil as to justify giving police military-level training, gadgetry, and epic power, when even governors and Senators feel obliged to show deference to police.  At some future point, when I and my peers are old but not quite dead, all of that is likely to be a thing of the past, something our heirs will be unable to imagine  any decent person accepting as normal.  How will the police themselves, with their established prestige and heroic self-image, deal with what is to come?   Very,    very, very poorly, I fear.