The US agency that we entrust with evaluating and recommending our encryption standards is the same one (albeit a different branch) that focuses on breaking encryption. There is an obvious conflict of interest with this arrangement.

Many examples of deliberate weakening are documented, especially with the "export approved" stuff that we sell to our allies.

This problem goes beyond just encryption, and also involves deliberate data leaking (with plausible deniability).

So yes, you don't need to imagine it at all -- the NSA works to create and maintain access to "everything everywhere."