They've been working on becoming a police state for decades, now, so I guess it's gradually been worked into their psyche. That said, a lot of the statutes get ignored by a lot of people as they just got on with their lives and not much could be done about that with the vastness of the country and the population density. Now technology and a growing police force is cracking dorm on it more.

There is a much more obvious divide here to between the haves and have nots, with some real postcode and school attended elitism. So the wealthy are connected and are less likely to receive fines, but also more likely to get out of them if they get them. So the police go for the easy targets.