The water temperature is up to 150 and the frogs are still happily croaking.

I think that's exactly the point they were making. They've been in 150 degree water. They know that the modestly warm temperature we're in is far, far lower than 150 degrees.

You've got a President who can't get most of what he wants done past the roadblocks in the government. He's stymied by the courts (tariffs struck down, prosecutions dismissed, detention policies overturned, etc.); by Congress (can't get the House to pass the bills he wants, can't get the Senate to get rid of the filibuster, can't get his ballroom or war funding through without having to beg, borrow and steal); by the press (who still constantly criticize him despite him calling them nasty names), and of course the opposition party that is able to engage in virtually any political activity they want to try to thwart his efforts.

Not exactly the same as what you find in one-party authoritarian countries like Cuba or Venezuela. Certainly Trump is vastly more illiberal in temperament and attitude than anyone we've seen in that office in modern times, and that's absolutely dragging the country in that direction - but being dragged in a given direction is not the same as having moved into something that can be identified as currently close to an autocracy.