That's got nothing to with the government per se. It's the people who have let their rights be eroded.
Really, we're at the point where we should "vote the bums out" at every election.
Walt
A little over a century ago some of us tried to stop the erosion. The people in control of the federal government did not tolerate dissent though and halted us by force of arms. You normally cheer them for doing so.
What? The government is the people. Of course that's one worthless man said oh, about 140 years ago and thanks to widespread public education, another dandy way to rewrite history by infecting the young ones, half the people in this nation are so ignorant now they think the Gettysburg Address is akin to the Constitution. The 'people' allowed their rights to be eroded by being required to give all power to the centralized government and in effect destroy the Republic. No more balance of power between the states and the general government. Now we even turn to them to tell us how much water we can have in our toilet, right Walt?
The Republic died in April 1865 and we have been living in a quasi-Empire ever since. So don't go blaming the people all the time. Yes they elected people like Clinton (didn't you vote for him twice Walt?), but these changes we face were put into motion long before you, I, or our parents were born.
The centralization of power under the wing of the national government was the death knell for what the Founders, except for that worthless king worshipper Hamilton, wanted. It was the establishment of a sick form, one that was broken, and frankly unless the national government out of the kindness of its heart decides to relinquish power back to the the states can not be fixed. You can scream at the top of your lungs we are a Republic or we are a Democracy until the cows come home, it doesn't make it anymore true.