"A 54% majority of Americans believe the government is ‘trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses,’ whereas 43% think it ‘should do more to solve the country’s problems," the pollster said.
The public sentiment was roughly the same in 2022 and 2021, but not in 2020, when on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more people wanted the government to do more.
Gallup found that the opinion that the US government is doing "too much" is more prevalent when the president is a Democrat. For instance, 55% of Americans believe that the government was doing too much under Barack Obama, while 48% said so about Donald Trump's administration and 53% about Joe Biden's incumbent administration.
Asked if they thought the US government had "too much power," 57% responded in the affirmative, while 7% said it had "too little power" and 36% said it was "about the right amount."
"Currently, 81% of Republicans, 59% of independents and 26% of Democrats say the federal government has too much power," Gallup said.
The poll was carried out from September 1-23 as part of Gallup's annual Governance series.