fading faith in government

It may have had a slight resurgence with the election of Obama, but I doubt it. In any case, this indicator is prone to fall, given the inefficiencies and inequities of govt...

From Robert Poole in Reason from 1978 (as reproduced in their 12/08 issue):

'How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right-- just about always, most of the time, or only some of the time?' In 1958, about 76% said 'just about always' or 'most of the time'...it hit 55% in 1970, 36% in 1974, and 33% in 1976.