What’s ironic is that it was European thought, as expressed in the books and writings that influenced our founders, that lead to this very system. Hell, some still argue we have a democracy, not knowing it’s a republic and why that matters.
I also think some of this can be traced to the differences in our legal system (coming down to us from English common law and concepts like “precedent”, jury trials, and the like), as opposed to the continental tradition of the “Napoleonic Code”.
I suspect people who are used to the latter tend to think more in terms of “rights” descending from the government to the people.