Once, the deluded citizens believed these captains of business and industry were virtuous. Now, we regard them and big business and the political beneficiaries of their largess as just another bunch of con artists.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June04/Zingh0621.htm
Worse, the current administration has torn the veil of past administrations' apparent legitimacy. Although past governments of both major parties have lied, dissembled and misled their people, the current administration has not even bothered with the art of the political lie. It lies through its teeth, patently, recklessly, lying as it grabs you by the throat and threatens you with the balled fist if you challenge its lies. This, then, is the cultural example that the Administration sets for all our American institutions; an example of leadership by lying and bullying that must, over time, corrode our institutions to the bone.