If you consider the concept of abstraction, it seems inevitable that people eventually stop caring much about how or why the black box works. Then consider how many layers of abstraction have been agglutinated over the years.
You are wrong. As citizens we can grant and revoke government powers at will. Cutting off or significantly curtailing their revenue would have a similar effect.
EDIT: There would need to be a concomitant cultural change as well. As it stands folks are not aware of or engaged with what their government is doing.
Even if we replaced every government official today, it could quickly devolve back to its current state.
I think it's a phenomenon worth examining. There isn't a simple answer. Part of it must be changes in American culture. What those changes are is debatable.
W/r/t <smallrant> it seems that the gender pay gap is one problem nestled into the bigger problem of stagnating wages for most Americans over the past half-century or so.