"The worst thing Ronald Reagan did was to make the denial of compassion respectable."
Great quote from a great documentary:
(It's four 1-hour parts if you want to give it a try. Whole thing is worth watching but I'd say if you can't muster it then watch the last hour as that part covers the most modern history of the phenomenon discussed).
"People no longer saw themselves as part of a group, but instead as individuals who could demand things from their government in exchange for paying taxes."