If you haven't noticed, Government is alright trying to control how we trade with exchanges now forcing people to first carry out KYC verification before using their platforms. I wasn't here when Bitcoin started, but I believe there was so much freedom trading Bitcoin back then than it is right now.
It's because back then bitcoin is not yet in the radar of the government, or any agency for that matter. But after the Mt. Gox heist, you will hear a lot of negativity starting to pop up. In the last 5 years or so, government are taking notice, hence KYC/AML verification is now in full effect.
However, this is the best effort they can put forward, they can't really stop bitcoin's trading. One way to do that is to stop internet, but I doubt they will have the power to do that.