What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party.
If I have to rely on another person to provide me with the block chain data, that is clearly the need for a trusted third party.
If you run an SPV node that connects broadly to the network, only have to rely on the network being honest, not a particular node operator. SPV nodes are even described in the whitepaper (one click away in my sig).