Poorly implemented services are currently a major driver of cynicism about government.

Judge as of 2015-08-17. True: surveys, government reports or academic research from around 2015 show that poorly implemented government services, such as failed IT projects and bad service delivery, were a major cause of public cynicism or distrust towards government. Mostly true: the evidence shows they were a significant cause but suggests they ranked below other leading causes, or the evidence covers a narrower setting (for example the US only) than the claim implies. Mixed: the evidence is split or inconclusive about whether service quality was a major driver. Mostly false: service quality is linked to trust, but the evidence shows it was a minor factor compared with others such as partisanship, scandals or economic conditions, or the link is shown only as a correlation and is stated here as a cause. False: the evidence shows service implementation had no meaningful effect on cynicism about government.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Poll: Americans Distrust Their Government VOA Learning English (reporting on a Pew Research Center survey) · 27 November 2015

   “Since then, trust in government has taken a major drop after the unpopular Iraq War and a dull economy.”

2. E2 Poll: Americans Distrust Their Government VOA Learning English (reporting on a Pew Research Center survey) · 27 November 2015

   “Only 20 percent of people polled by Pew say they would describe government programs as well run.”

3. E3 Poll: Americans Distrust Their Government VOA Learning English (reporting on a Pew Research Center survey) · 27 November 2015

   “The influence of money on politics may add to the distrust of government, says Pew.”

4. E4 Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government Pew Research Center · 23 November 2015

   “Just 20% say the federal government runs its programs well, and 59% say it is in need of “very major reform,” up 22 percentage points since 1997.”

5. E5 Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government Pew Research Center · 23 November 2015

   “While trust in government among Republicans has varied widely depending on whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House, Democrats’ views have shown far less change.”

6. E6 Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government Pew Research Center · 23 November 2015

   “Republicans also are far more likely than Democrats to say that the government is wasteful and inefficient (75% vs. 40% of Democrats) and to give the government a “poor” rating for how it operates its programs (50% vs. 18%).”

7. E7 Beyond Distrust: How Americans View Their Government Pew Research Center · 23 November 2015

   “But just 39% have a favorable opinion of the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs, and its favorable rating has plummeted 29 percentage points since 2013.”

Pew's 2015 survey shows that few Americans rated federal programs as well run (20%), many wanted very major reform, and a scandal-hit agency's ratings fell sharply (E2, E4, E7). The same sources link the decline in trust to the Iraq War, the economy, money in politics and partisanship (E1, E3, E5), and E6 shows that views of government inefficiency split along party lines. None of the evidence measures service quality as a cause of cynicism or ranks it against the other factors, so whether it was a major driver is left unsettled.