Had to chuckle when I saw your post's header, TB.

With my usual, totally unsubstantiated gut reaction, I'm going to guess why the guv'mint comes up so often and so early: conditioning. The oldest Americans alive today remember the WPA and the TVA; the rest of us remember numerous other footprints left on the land by the Feds. The Interstate highway system is painfully obvious, especially if you have to use it.

Granted, it's a matter of dependence. It's also a matter of the Feds being the only game in town, and of their having built a rep over the last few decades which was so strong for so long that only now is it beginning to show stress, like the underside of the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis.

As to "There oughta be a law"* ~ that attitude is a different matter. It's older than post-WWII, so it's not necessarily tied in to the era of Big Government as Hero. I think it's closer to "How do people get away with [the behavior most abhorred this week]?" The flip side of making something illegal does go back to dependence on government, in a way: now it's the police's job, not ours.

On the other hand, you hang out with (virtually, anyway) some people whose attitude is, "There ought not to be a law." What's to be made of that?

So, let's see your chronology. I'm curious if I can find the basis for my gut in your dates.

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[* - which you, among others here, will also remember as a single-panel daily newspaper cartoon... with a 40-year run, according to Wikipedia. I couldn't find any panels online.]