If it’s accuracy we’re after, I’d say that around the time George Bush’s administration rammed Raisch v Gonzales through the Supreme Court, the last barriers between the federal government and the states came down. We are no longer a republic with a federal government of enumerated powers, but a nation-state.
Think of the US as going from a compartmented dirigible to a large gas bag, or blimp. I think the Civil War made it inevitable.
You are incorrect!
The words in the Constitution guaranteeing a Republican Form of Government with limited powers of legislation have not changed.
We are the Sovereign, not the government. We don't make the rules but we control who does. We have the obligation to elect representatives who will honor their oath to protect our rights from government interference.