While I cannot comment on MG's circumstances but I've had to go through a scanner/pat down that the TSA didn't have in Anchorage for the last sixteen years.  Maybe the last eight or so.  I didn't have to worry about any electronics except for my camera film to be exposed/damaged and now I have to deal with separate inspection most important at border entry points where CBP/TSA can and have asked to see it powered up (and possibly request unlocked).  Also, the TSA wasn't much of a presence in train stations until the last few years as well.
Every time I stand in one of those scanners and cross my hands above my head I recall Franklin's words (paraphrase due to limit), "Those who trade liberty for security deserve neither."  The terrorists won when they significantly changed not only how we enjoy our liberties, like commercial airlines, but also how we think about them.