FISA was passed in 1978 because of domestic spying and has always allowed spying of US citizens who meet certain criteria.
This debate has been going on for 30 years, "meta data" or "geo data" isn't required. This is the NSA we are talking about, they literally have secret patents which can physically target communication sources based on latency and other variables.
The police can track your vehicle movements (if there is a cop that can read your license plate, I forgot what their system is called, it's going in a database with location and time), many many random mobile app providers can track your movements, so why would anyone be surprised that the largest and most advanced spying agency has the capability and motive to monitor US citizens. My point is that there is not much use in all of this fuss, it's been suspected (assumed) for decades that the NSA uses some legal loophole or special permission to gather all data. And even if they didn't, who is going to stop them?
Does anyone think that ANY crimes have been prevented because the person though, "geeze, the NSA will probably see this and pass it to the FBI, maybe I shouldn't hack or steal or murder". Probably. Not saying it's right or wrong, but an interesting piece of the puzzle to consider.
Less fuss? I remember plenty of talk going on about this -- it hit the front page of many newspapers including the NYT and the Washington Post. The administration even acknowledged it to a degree. People have just forgotten.
(1) the definite proof was missing, it was just 'a source' said something
(2) in 2006, it was G W Bush, so people weren't that surprised
(3) it was just 5 years since 9-11 so people accepted it more easily
(4) it was before everyone understood the geo-data that phone calls include
(5) General public (beyond IT professionals) have a better understanding of data and privacy now, after years of facebook and targeted ads