One solution to limit increased unauthorized surveillance of US citizens was to enact a law to limit the president and federal personnel from authorizing surveillance of US citizens.
The FISA was designed to prevent secret surveillance by the president and others in the federal government after Watergate.
History shows how federal government surveillance grew over time when governing personnel were granted a new power by law.
The act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as a tribunal tasked with reviewing requests from federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies like the FBI and National Security Agency who sought permission to begin wiretap surveillance on any "Foreign power or an agent of a foreign power" within the US The FISC was comprised of seven federal district court judges.
After the September 11, 2001, terror attacks the newly-signed USA Patriot Act expanded FISA surveillance orders duration, allowed authorities to share information placed before a grand jury with other federal agencies, and permitted authorities to gather foreign intelligence information on US citizens and non-citizens.
The 2007 law amended FISA by removing warrant requirements for federal surveillance of foreign intelligence targets outside the US and anyone in the US that communicated with them.
What started out after Watergate to prevent secret unauthorized surveillance of US citizens by the president and others in the federal government resulted with an abundance of secret and warrantless surveillance of US citizens and non-US citizens by the federal government.
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