I suppose with regard to 1). The citizen's power continuously decreasing as government's power increases.. 2). The citizen's access to their elected representatives. 3). The level of punishment a citizen receives if they oppose government in any way, from financial punishment up to potential execution. 4). The lack of freedom of each citizen as government dependence increases. The limitations on what type of work one can do, as well as travel, etc. The main character finds freedom only after inadvertently breaking all ties with the government, which in itself is terrifying in that one is entirely alone to face the dangers of life, (ie, no police, hospitals, no welfare etc.). 5). The pressure which government puts on one's community (friends, family), in order to bring the offending citizen into line, as we see in China's new Social rating system. If a friend helps the offender, the friend's credit rating drops. It's been about 30 years since I read it, but those are some things I recall.

“It seemed to K. as if at last those people had broken off all relations with him, and as if now in reality he were freer than he had ever been, and at liberty to wait here in this place usually forbidden to him as long as he desired, and had won a freedom such as hardly anybody else had ever succeeded in winning, and as if nobody could dare touch him or drive him away, or even speak to him, but — this conviction was at least equally as strong — as if at the same time there was nothing more senseless, more hopeless, than this freedom, this waiting, this inviolability.”