There’s just a disconnect from this generation to the next. 

Succession is difficult, but inevitable.

Patience. 

 My predictions of the future got far more accurate when I stopped assuming good intentions by the government and started assuming government and all other organizations are just individuals acting in their own often short sighted self interest.

This isn't some nihilistic dead end. We can design systems to create good behavior in that scenario, like bitcoin. If we assume otherwise and don't build those systems we will continue to be unhappy with our results. 

 "governments want to protect their citizens and provide for their well-being"

I don't know if you're being sarcastic here or maybe we live in different universes and Nostr is a quantum wormhole.

Governments like all human organizations are driven first and foremost by the will to increase their power over resources, people included. The incentive of a government to "protect" their citizens and try not to keep them in abject poverty and physical dejection is exactly the same that drives a local gang to "protect" their turf and the people in it: to extract more resources, for longer, and with as little competition from other mafias as possible. 

 Each governmental structure is different and susceptible to human corruption - true.  And yes, there are certain arms of government who’s job is “protection”, there are also certain arms of government who’s job is “well-being”, “justice”, etc. One of my favorites is “to secure the blessings of Liberty” (open to interpretation, but for me, is one of the most important). Ideally a government is structured so there are proper checks and balances on each, as well as firewalls to prevent manipulation between the different arms. Mismanagement of the fiat system has led to a degradation, as humans seem to be inherently corruptible as a whole… however, the first path in transformation is awareness, so there is progress here. The key is going to be evolution without full collapse.  We don’t need to burn the book, perhaps, just make some edits. Being concise matters. 

 I can only disagree. It's a much more fundamental and universal phenomenon. 

 Yea yea humans suck ik ik 

To persist, any self-regulating organism much face consequences in order to learn.  The world will humble us, patience.