There was a time when citizens trusted their government a lot more than they do now. Restoring that confidence will take a long time time and even then may never reach the degree of credibility it once enjoyed. Too bad.

Largely because of partisan media that -often- outright lies to viewers. There has always been some, of course...the JFK assassination conspiracy theories predate the internet and cable news by a few decades. But the incessant lying in the media, and the rapid proliferation of those lies via social media, have bred that distrust.

Which is ironic, since the government is probably more transparent (prior to 2025) than it has ever been.

Now it's going to take a preventable epidemic (like measles or polio) to wake people up. A lot of ruined lives to convince people of what we've know for at least 70 years (i.e. vaccines prevent and/or minimize some true horrors being visited upon our lives to the point that we take for granted those horrors "can't" touch us).