Turning point (passive voice)

So, it began not as she had projected it – but as he feared. With world opinion severely shaken; governments who wished to act and start a war held hostage by the loose cannon of international law; all flights – in compensation - were cancelled, and squadrons of fighter planes were sent out to patrol the skies. Armies were stationed at airports where all good citizens were subjected to full body search and perusal of their criminal records. Briefly, for a few weeks, it seemed to those with a taste for dark metaphysics that a turning point in history – as represented by the critical mass of the winding gyre - had been reached. -