Government’s attitude probably accounts for as much public distaste as its fiscal improprieties.   Government is widely regarded as aloof, inept, and—well, bureaucratic.   But what is it, specifically, about bureaucracy that most sets our teeth on edge?   When the term is used as a general-purpose pejorative, it connotes an organization that is large and inert, with a way of stifling people’s initiative and creativity through an over-fondness for rules.  Probably not coincidentally, this is also pretty much the standard view of Washington in the government-scourge trade.

Oil company ads in the editorial pages tend to be particularly adept at depicting government in this manner.  In a typical ad following the OPEC-induced shortages, the petroleum oligoporate superstructure is portrayed as an individual, really just an average guy like you or me, who’d love nothing better than to drill more holes in the ground, thereby solving our energy problems;  only there are all these fuddy-duddies in government hats getting in the way.

(Of course, what the oil companies really want to spend their money on is a separate issue, best addressed separately.   Therefore let us not dwell on the oil company that, during the most desperate ebb of the 1973-74 energy crunch, wanted to use its profits to buy up the Barnum & Bailey Circus.)

What’s to the point is that these companies, and especially their high-priced advertising and PR outfits, whose business it is to know and play on the public mood, have determined that there is a rich enough vein of public frustration that it can be mined on a daily basis, without fear of its playing out.