[chongli]

a deliberate attempt to undermine confidence in government

Yes. The strategy is known as "starve the beast" [1] and it is pursued with ferocious determination by its proponents. The goal is to create some kind of minimal government libertarian paradise.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starve_the_beast

[notch656a]

I thought starve the beast was where non-wartime federal spending as a percent of GDP increased multiple times over the past 100 year period. The beast to be starved being the individual citizen and businesses.

Yes you can see, the beast has been horribly starved.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S

[piva00]

Looking at general spending doesn't tell you absolutely anything where the spending is going to and doesn't enable any kind of cost-benefit analysis. It's a meaningless metric to derive any argument from.

Spending on services that are multipliers of productivity is very different than spending on the military, for example. Spending on public services that improves citizens' life like healthcare, parks, schools, culture, easiness of bureaucracy (e.g.: permits for construction, licencing of activities, etc.) is a completely different beast than spending on politicians benefits, military drills, and so on.