With respect to encroachments by the Federal government, I agree. However, perhaps you recognize this passage from an original founding document:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." [Emphasis added]
From this I infer that the Founders believed that The People, not governments, are sovereign. How could it be otherwise, given that they recognized the Right of the People to alter or to abolish government? I note also that the Founders recognized Rights as originating with the Creator, and as unalienable.
At least one primary historical significance of the American Revolution is that the ideology contained in the founding documents literally inverted a relationship (between the individual and government) that had been taken as a given throughout history to that point.
That's why we have representative forms of government.