If your parents were “the greatest generation” then they ruined it as much as you did. Who really deserves the blame is the generation before: the New Deal generation. They spit the Republic’s throat. All we’ve done since is follow their lead.
Then again, they were following the lead of the previous generation, too. The one in charge during WWI. But that was only a hint, and a special wartime one at that. They were yhe first progressive era generation. But there were still some adults wandering around then, too, and they didn’t just talk about limited government. They actually kept government limited.
I want to blame the Civil War generation, though obviously they were split as well. Only a fraction of them were “anything goes.” There was a huge ratcheting effect, just not big enough to fatalistically doom the Republic.
Yeah, I blame the New Dealers with an assist from their parents.
Do you really expect that everyone and everything would remain as they were centuries ago? Or that we would be radically different from other peoples in a similar position? Or that the very things that you might favor, support, or want wouldn't bring negative consequences along with positive benefits?