Great question. I came of age politically just as all this stuff was going on. America changed greatly between pre-1968 (with the asassinations and cities erupting in flames and violent riots) and post Nixon resignation in 1974 in a way I've never seen since. Sure, in one sense, the distrust of government thread goes way back in American history. But ... pre 1968, the dominant culture including my bourgeouis suburban world was pro-Vietnam War, anti all these hippies, anti-drugs and permissive counterculture subversive types (at least in the northeast they - reluctantly- conceded that the civil rights movement was a good thing, but there was such a thing as taking it "too far"). Even throughout Watergate many people - my own parents included - clung to the notion up until the last minute that the President couldn't possibly be guilty (or maybe they just didn't want to believe it, because it meant they were part of the wrong paradigm). The realization that Oh My God those rabble rousers were right - at least about some things - was absolutely mind-blowing, to use a phrase they wouldn't have used. All of a sudden questioning authority was respectable.