Then maybe you'll agree that...
I don't see the government as either hero or victim, but I do see it as a juicy prize for anybody who craves power. There's the rub: It's the mission of a democratic government, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, to act as a counterweight to concentrations of power and to maintain the dispersion of power that's the philosophical basis for America.
It's far easier for "The People" to keep an eye on and control over a small government than to try and keep control over the massive head spinning bureaucratic chimera we have now. IMO, the shear size and complexity of our goverment is the main reason so few people actually care about politics today.