Perhaps that confidence is slowly being replaced with fear, or even outright antagonism. It turns out that this trend is more than just anecdotal. According to several Gallup polls, the American public is slowly turning against the US government, year after year.

For starters, a clear majority of the population believes that there is widespread corruption in our government. In 2007 and 2009, about 2/3 of Americans believed this, but by 2014 about 75% of Americans viewed their government as corrupt. Also interesting to note, is the growing fear that our government threatens our freedoms. In 2003, 30% of the Americans polled by Gallup agreed that the federal government was "an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens." By 2015, that number had grown to 49% of the population.

The most common reasons cited for this belief, were the growing size of government, violations of civil liberties, threats against Second Amendment rights, and intrusions into our private lives.