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Here’s an interesting snippet from an article by the Cato Institute, on why Reagan (despite perception to the contrary) was unable to reduce the size of government. Let us hope that we are now in a different era with a different kind of leader who can make it so. You’re right, it must be made difficult or impossible to re-create.

“Reagan failed to radically cut back the federal establishment because American government is biased against big changes. All three branches of government must agree to changes in the status quo. The most crucial parts of Reagan’s coalition in Congress had programs to protect. Conservative Democrats were willing to cut government spending except for farm subsidies, water projects, and the military. Liberal Republicans supported cuts except in transportation, fuel assistance, and education. Reagan’s difficulties in Congress also reflected what might be called “the political strategy of the welfare state.” Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson both expected that programs once enacted would attract support and grow over time for two reasons. First, those who benefit from such spending are organized and motivated to protect it. Second, entitlement programs create an expectation that future benefits are earned by past contributions. Moreover, much of the general public also adapts to the increased government as time passes; what an earlier generation would have deemed tyranny, their grandchildren see as part of the status quo.

Big changes in the political status quo require a big crisis to sweep away the forces preventing change. By 1980, the order created by Roosevelt and Johnson was hampering economic growth and losing support. The 1970s crisis, however, was not severe enough to sweep away the old order. Reagan ended up reforming, not destroying, the New Deal order. Growth resumed. Most of the old ways survived to see “Morning in America.”

The struggle to limit government almost ended in 1988. Reagan’s successor, George H. W. Bush, accepted tax increases in exchange for … nothing really. Yet the nation was entering a new crisis; this time the difficulties were more political than economic. Congress no longer worked. Corruption was rife. The Speaker of the House resigned from office for ethical shortcomings. Five senators — the infamous Keating Five — were investigated for wrongdoing. These failures notwithstanding, Congress seemed immune to change through elections. Incumbents rarely lost. Public confidence in government reached new lows, for good reason. The times seemed ripe once again for fundamental change.”