If the powers that be wanted to stop bitcoin they would just buy a lot of hardware and do a simple 51% attack and be done with it.
Not really true.
It's useful to consider the history of substitute currencies, historically. There are several dozen studied cases where as one currency lost trust, others came to be used. Often the death penalty was used to try to prevent the good money from coming in.
It never worked.
Good money always wins out in the end.