It is nothing new. I believe that trust in government was highest in the late 1950s.
See here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/5392/trust...
(Scroll down to University of Michigan Election Survey)

This NPR story cites a Pew report on previous surveys.
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/23/4570637...
Scroll to the chart that shows a fall from 80% in 1968 to 20% in 2015.

The Atlantic did pinpoint a moment of renewed patriotism in the wake of 9/11:
The only time since 1975 that government trust broke 50% was in the months following 9/11. After the tumultuous assassinations of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, the resignation of President Nixon, and the stagflation of the late 1970s, public trust fell from 80% in 1966 to about 25% in 1981. Since then it's only peaked over 50% once, after 9/11.
here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/a...

When my wife and I were in school together (c. 2008), she was majoring in computer security and I was in criminal justice. We had a CJ class together in "Evidence and Procedure." It took some doing, but the instructor, a local judge, got us all to "call and response" to his query:
Why do we have a First Amendment?
Because we don't trust the government!
...
Why do we have a Seventh Amendment?
Because we don't trust the government!
...

It is pretty much a fundamental of American political theory that the Constitution has separation of powers and checks and balances because we never really trusted the government. I think that the idyllic Leave-it-Beaver-ism of the late 1950s and early 1960s was an anomaly that brought reflected approval to the government.

Hello mminnick,
Trust is earned. Here too they have been running a deficit for years.
"I love my country, but I fear my government." Mark Scott.
Respectfully,
O.A.

I give my trust to no one, certainly no one in gov't.

Absolutely not, never have, never will. As Acton said, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".

I think the last of my trust in government disappeared in April 1993.
I have seen nothing since then to change my opinion.

No, not for a second. But I don't believe people should ever trust anyone but themselves. They can and should consult with others and once reason & logic are applied, accept others judgement but never do it blindly.

In my opinion, this alone is the reason government must be limited to an absolute minimum.