I think you've successfully identified at least one of the problems for the erosion of freedom here in the US: people are fine with freedom as long as it doesn't allow people to act in ways they don't like. So while they want to be free from a tyrant(s), they often don't agree with freedoms that go against their "tribal" beliefs (e.g. religion, sexual standards, etc). I suppose they can even be viewed as two different forms of freedom, although they are clearly interlinked.

A related problem is that people's opinions tend to cluster based on their tribe, rather than an analysis of individual issues. In any sane world, many of the political beliefs held by both the left and right in America are contradictory within the group. But they are generally consistently held by the majority of that group. It's not because they independently came to the same conclusions about each issue. Instead, it seems like social pressure mechanisms lead them all to think the same on most issues.

While arriving at a consensus of opinion isn't necessarily bad, it is bad when it's done in an irrational way. And as far as I can tell, the current process seems mostly irrational.