We've certainly come a long way from the time when Alexander Hamilton called the judiciary the least dangerous branch. He assumed the courts would operate only within the bounds of the Constitution. If they did that, they'd be about as busy as the Maytag repairman. Hamilton also assumed a populace that understood the Constitution and respected its jurisdictional boundaries.
I doubt that Hamilton (or Madison, or Jefferson...) envisioned this:
Hey judge! I wanna sodomize my boyfriend! Wait, scratch that...I wanna sodomize five boyfriends. I want you to make this a federal issue and get rid of my state's anti-sodomy law.
Hey Judge! They just passed an ordinance in my county against serving alcoholic beverages in strip clubs. I'm real pissed off about it. I thought about campaigning to have the commissioners repeal the law, but I might lose. So I want you to declare federal hegemony over my county and get rid of that law for me. I'm sure I have a constitutional right to drink booze while simultaneously watching a girl strip nekked up there on a stage. I can't find it actually written out in the Constitution, but I think it's in one of them auras or whatever that surrounds it. Anyway, get rid of that law for me.
When people don't understand the issues involved, don't have the intellectual tools to critically examine the issues involved, and don't have the self-discipline to think beyond their own self-interest, we're in a societal freefall.