In the famous words of comedian Rodney Dangerfield, many people feel that they get “no respect!” This may be especially true of authority figures, at least today. What events have transpired to make our current era one of little respect or deference toward authority?

Many people view the 1960s as the beginning of widespread popular dissent in America, with the nation undergoing a permanent shift as a result of the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. According to California State University - Chico, a liberal-conservative consensus in American politics existed from 1945 to approximately 1965 when most citizens were in sociopolitical agreement. The economic boom after World War II had lifted most Americans out of poverty and unemployment was very low, near full employment levels. In short, things were good.

During most of this time-period there was little open dissent between citizens and authority figures. By the early 1960s, however, the Civil Rights Movement had picked up speed and was beginning to challenge long-standing political and social traditions. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson forced racial integration on areas that had no desire to do so, causing turmoil and even violence. The federal government’s use of force, including mobilizing the National Guard and deputizing U.S. Marshals to enforce racial integration, was a level of federal power not exercised since the U.S. Civil War.

The federal government’s use of force to guarantee racial integration and the upholding of the Civil Rights Act continued a tradition of growing federal power that had begun with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in 1932. Before FDR, laissez-faire politics ruled and the federal government was relatively hands-off in the affairs of the national economy. The Great Depression ended that system, however, and began the evolution toward “big government,” which would grow so large by the late 1960s that it provoked the ire of many citizens.

The Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War and the Space Race, the War on Poverty, the Civil Rights Movement and corresponding Civil Rights Act, and the Vietnam War, drastically expanded the U.S. government and its powers. While citizens were tolerant of this evolution from the 1930s to the 1950s, when the economic reforms were seen as overwhelmingly positive and America’s battles against the foes of Nazism, fascism, Japanese imperialism, Soviet aggression, and Communist expansion were seen as good and just, the 1960s saw cracks emerge in the long-standing liberal-conservative consensus that had bound Americans firmly behind Uncle Sam.

There were disagreements over racial integration and the Civil Rights Movement. There were disagreements over U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, which was seen as more complex, and less winnable, than Korea. The military draft was increasingly unpopular. Economic growth was slowing. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 had shocked America about the realities of possible nuclear war, and the assassination of iconic president John F. Kennedy a year later ended an innocence still held by the country. By the late 1960s the post-WWII glow of America had faded. Reality was more harsh.

Technology was changing, politics was changing, the economy was changing, the world was changing, and people were no longer willing to happily accept whatever was said by the government. Upset by radical changes, or the government’s slow response to them, increasing numbers of Americans lost their previous deference to authority. Violent protests marred the last years of the 1960s as Americans protested amplified U.S. involvement in Vietnam and struggles in America’s controversial race relations and history of racism.

The 1970s saw a further erosion of trust in government as the economy struggled. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo hurt the U.S. economy, reports the Department of State, and raised anxiety among U.S. citizens. Also in 1973, the U.S. ended ground involvement in Vietnam, a depressing end to a controversial chapter in American foreign interventions. The following year, 1974, president Richard M. Nixon resigned in disgrace due to the Watergate Scandal. Public disgust was high and respect for government authority was low.

While some confidence and sociopolitical consensus was restored in the mid-1980s and 1990s as the U.S. economy improved and America emerged victorious from the Cold War, the economic prosperity created a new wave of entitled youngsters, reports Newsweek. This generation, often dubbed the Millenials, began with the sons and daughters of those who were teens and twenty-somethings during the protest era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their parents’ distrust of authority, coupled with economic comfort, has created a generation of youth who are not afraid to question authority.