They honestly may be convinced of being exclusively occupied with the national interest. But it is inevitable that they have their own conception of it. So, the individuals within such a collective are submitted to the more or less reasonable ideas and power of the leading elites. Under these circumstances it is absolutely excluded that people are really free and independent individuals. Their so-called freedom is conditional in every respect and actually their rights are nothing but favors and privileges, provided by rulers who once, long ago, conquered their authority by violently subjecting peaceful ordinary people.
History shows that there was no nobility in the beginning of the Western culture.
But soon, supported by the Christian clergy, a number of cunning brutes started to tyrannize their fellow men. And exactly this forms the foundation of the present democracy with its forcibly obtained rights. Pre-arranged liberty Unconditional freedom and independence of man is not in the interest of the current democratic states' leaders. Of course the explanation is that this is a matter of power. The leaders don't want to lose their high status with its power, its ample income and its relative personal freedom.