Has Political Correctness got a bad name because of the idealists?

I find it strange that people question whether we need political correctness, and rubbish its intentions. Surely, if people were perfect, which we know they are not, PC would not be needed. It was introduced to curb racism, ism and intolerance of all kinds - it was needed because people held if not overt, then covert, bigoted views. In an attempt to redress this, laws had to be introduced. These, naturally offend the very people who held/still hold these views. If people didn't think like that, we wouldn't need laws to outlaw their actions and words. When people stop being predudiced (whether it's about religion, race, gender or uality) then we can dispense with the PC 'brigade'. However, this would leave the Daily Mail with nothing to write about...