The idea was that government should leave business alone, allow it to operate unregulated.
I mean, I mean, in court cases, well, the few laws that did exist were usually interpreted in favor of business interests. But over time, it started becoming increasingly obvious and troubling to the public that some of these big companies simply had too much control. There were criticisms that owners had too much opportunity to exploit workers, workers and consumers, because they could control prices and wages. So there was bad press, bad publicity, enough that the government eventually felt it had to do something,