I don't see how you can say politicians today care less about the public compared to politicians who fully supported slavery, segregation, or the force relocation of whole ethnic groups[1]. The government isn't studying syphilis patients without treating them[2] or dosing mental patients with psychedelic drugs[3] like they used to. I guess it depends on which issues you focus on, but many politicians and government agents didn't have the best interests of the public in mind in the past. The rosy-tinted glasses of nostalgia make it look like a more innocent time, but it was far from innocent. Also, I think the legal system works better now because of better forensics. I'm convinced that many innocent people were murdered by juries of their peers in the past, especially if they were poor or minorities. Of the 143 exonerated death row inmates in the United States, 142 were exonerated after 1973 [4]. At the same time, more real killers get caught now than 50 or 100 years ago. Overall, I think we have better government and less dysfunctional democracy now than we had in the past, although obviously it is far from perfect. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_removal 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK-ULTRA#Drugs 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exonerated_death_row_inmates