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Interesting point. I'm starting to lean towards the view that government should simply get out of the marriage business. Allow consenting adults to enter into any contract they desire

That's kind of the way it was before the federal reforms, given to us by Congress. The details of the marriage "contract" had been worked out through many generations of limited government involvement in private family issues; ie. when one spouse sued another in civil court. Basic civil rights were applied to each, circumstances were taken into consideration, rights and obligations divied up --- generally what was worked out was at least in theory minimum government intrusion (all that other stuff had something to do with reality -- the courts simply doing the job of settling disputes.)

The details of the marriage "contract" had been worked out through many generations of limited government involvement in private family issues; ie. when one spouse sued another in civil court.

Imagine a marriage regime where there is a generic statutory marriage contract that any consenting adults can enter into. Call it a "Personal Relationship Contract" (PRC). The generic PRC would lay out rules as to how assets of the relationship would be distributed upon dissolution of the PRC, how things like power-of-attorney would be handled if one member of the PRC fell sick etc. People entering into a contract could alter the terms of these provisions as they saw fit. This regime would be very similar to how business partnerships work under state law- there is a generic set of statutory rules that govern how a partnership works, but the partners are able to alter those rules (within limits) by execution of a written partnership document.

That's kind of the way it was before the federal reforms, given to us by Congress.

Unfortunaltley, we are well past the point of no return on this issue (gov't encroaching on our private lives). That being said, is it even possible to stop it? Me thinks not.