Battlestar Galactica: 10 WORST Things To Happen In The Colonial Fleet
1. Military Dictatorship
This one is, unfortunately, a stark truth to the situation of the fleet in the time after the fall of the Twelve Colonies: they were subject to a dictatorship. While there was unarguably many positive things that came out of Adama and Roslin's mutual relationship in running the fleet, there were also many examples of totalitarian regimes.
Adama shuts down an investigation into misconduct aboard his ship because he doesn't like the results. Roslin herself is thrown in jail for objecting, and acting on that objection, to Adama's command style. Adama later declares war on the Battlestar Pegasus, putting the civilian fleet in the line of fire. Baltar, of all people, makes people see that it is highly unlikely anyone who isn't named Adama will ever command the fleet - and he was right. Adama uses the Galactica, the fleet's only true means of protection, to pursue his enemies when he loses perspective.
It has to be said that, while the military clearly had the best interests of the fleet at heart, it did not act on that at all times. President Roslin, while deeply invested in the search for Earth, gradually develops more and more dictatorial tendencies - something that Tom Zarek is quick to school Lee Adama on.
There is no precedent for the situation that the survivors of humanity find themselves in but, it is clear from the beginning, that they are not in a safe haven in their fleet, so much as they are in a constant chase across the stars, with a 'do as you're told' set of rules upon them all.