A nice summary of the long-term trend on public trust in government, in the NYT:
Trust in government peaked after the New Deal and World War II. It has declined since the war in Vietnam and Watergate. A New York Times/CBS News Poll has been asking Americans for a generation whether they think they can trust the government in Washington to do what is right. The portion who replied “always” or “most of the time” plunged to 18 percent in 1995, just about when the Gingrich Revolution deposed House Democrats, rebounded to a patriotic 55 percent after 9/11 and sunk back to 36 percent last summer.The general decline raises the question of whether there is a tipping point to eroding trust — a point at which people get really fed up. What happens then? They don’t form their own government. Do they vote for Ross Perot (as nearly 1 in 5 did in 1992, rejecting the two major party candidates)? Or Howard Dean? Or do they stay home?
