I hope you are right, but I don’t think human nature has changed. People respond to the promise of a free lunch and find ways to justify their picking the pockets of their fellow citizens. This has been going on for a long time, at least since FDR.
As an example, Sen. Inhofe is considered to be a true conservative, but when he campaigns, he always brings up all he has done for OK (pork). When the military wanted to shut down production of some cannon that is partly manufactured in some little town in OK, Inhofe immediately leapt to the defense of this “necessary” piece of equipment.
Walter Williams said that when people ask him why he doesn’t run for office, he asks them how far they think he would get if he told people he would not vote for any “goodies” for his constituents.
That’s the challenge