On Tuesday, the appeals court unanimously upheld the 2017 order deregulating broadband providers, citing a Supreme Court ruling from 2005 that upheld a similarly deregulatory move.

Each step on the long deregulatory road seemed wise at the time and was usually the answer to some flaw in the system.

The deregulatory consensus of the 1990s and 2000s has given way to a more stringent approach that is bound to last for several years.