There never has been nor will there ever been this thing called a "free market". The concept of free market is nothing more than globalization. Free market companies search the world for the cheapest labor and lowest bar with regards to labor and environmental regulation. We have seen than free as used in free market means free to do good and bad without any consequences. All a person need do is compare trade between the U.S. and other countries to see that free trade is nothing more than a fantasy.
The U.S. does not practice free trade - never has. What we have is a crony capitalist, kleptocratic, mercantile system.
Mind you that does not mean I am an unrepentant fan of Laissez Faire. However, it is preferable to socialism and communism. I would prefer a system that provides protection and incentives for true employee owned business, but the big boys do not want that. Psychotic control freaks are afraid of us commoners having freedom - both economic and political.
One thing Milton Friedman pointed out, in "Capitalism and Freedom", that I think is very true is that economic liberty is a prerequisite for political liberty.
The only way you could have free trade/true capitalism would require elimination of one of the most important elements or an integral part of his economic philosophy - greed. He even wrote about this in Wealth of Nations. In other words a basic ingredient of his economic philosophy is also its weakness.
Herbert Stein writes that Smith "was not pure or doctrinaire about this idea. He viewed government intervention in the market with great skepticism ... yet he was prepared to accept or propose qualifications to that policy in the specific cases where he judged that their net effect would be beneficial and would not undermine the basically free character of the system. The Wealth of Nations could justify the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, mandatory employer health benefits, environmentalism, and "discriminatory taxation to deter improper or luxurious behavior".
Stein, Herbert (1994-04-06). "Board of Contributors: Remembering Adam Smith". The Wall Street Journal Asia.