[ossiblue]

Look at your original question: "We went to the moon, built the fastest plane to fly, had affordable higher education and healthcare, and free love.

What went wrong?"

The moon/space successes--government programs.

Fastest plane--government/military program.

Affordable higher education--government (state and federal) programs.

Affordable health care--lost through uncontrolled rises in costs generated by for profit health insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and medical suppliers. Exacerbated by government mandates to provide service when patients cannot afford rising costs.

My only point is to show, given the original question, that government has played the leading role in those things you deem honorable and worthy. I agree with much of what Porsche-O-phile posted but would only add that everything in his post could be traced back to the decline of his parenthetical definition of "traditional values." If government's role has changed (and it has) it's because too many people abrogated their responsibilities to themselves, their families, their communities, and to their country. "Let the government handle it" became the easy way out. As trite as it sounds, we get the government we deserve. It can be changed.