One has to look at Coolodge’s career as a state legislator. He was not untouched by the progressive ideas of the time, and did not disdain active goverment. Very effective leader of both House sand Senate. Not a good platform speaker, as he acknowledged, but was the first President to speak to the nation on radio, and was quite good at it. A literate man, he certainly was the last president educated in the classical way, and could read Greek. Coolidge indeed reduced government significantly, but that was something began during the Harding Administration, and was as much a result of sharply reducing military and naval expenditures. He probably would have been more active as President except for the untimely death of his son, which, as he admitted left the taste of ashes in his mouth.Probably he was profoundly depressed. Certainly the energy, the decisiveness which was there before —though nothing like that of TR or Hoover—dissipated.
I remember reading years ago, about how Calvin Cooledge the legislator was very different from Cooledge the President, and the reasons that he gave.
The things he supported and liked, were legal and constitution at the state level, not so at the federal level, and that just because he liked something, and supported it, did not mean it was constitutional for him to push it, so he left it to states to handle it as they sought fit.
He grasped the constitution in a way, that probably no president fully has since that time. He understood the limitations on the federal government, more then every single president that came after him. His opposition was to big FEDERAL government, as it was unconstitutional, he felt differently, about the state level, and felt that was what state legislators were for. Its a shame, that his way of thinking, is not just rare today, its nonexistent.