The NSA is probably the worst-case of the general public not trusting government institutions. However, it seems that government has lost trust across all functions, despite only marginal increase in corruption. Is new, faster communication just making us more acutely away of the corruption that inevitably happens? I don't think it's bad to be aware, but we really need to learn to scale our response. A program can have a % of corruption and still achieve success. Also, I wonder whether mistrust of institutions stems from the record wealth disparity. In general, institutions seem much less trustworthy when a small percentage of people can disproportionately influence them.