All time low approval for federal government - a case of promising too much and delivering too little?

A Pew Research Center Poll finds public approval of federal government at a record low.  As you can see in the graph below, only 28% of the public views the federal government favorably down 5 percentage points from last year.

On the other hand people view their state and local governemnts more favorably,  57% and 63% respectively, though down from 66% and 68% in 1997.



Now a majority of Democrats view the federal government less favorably, dropping from 51% last year to 41% this year.  Republicans dropped from 20% to 13%.

At the state and local levels, Republicans and Democrats aren't that far a part in how their view government.



I suspect the problem is people expect the federal government to solve all our problems.  A case of unrealistic expectations brought on by overpromising by politicians.