The answer to your first question depends on your viewpoint. The vast majority of people see the US Federal Government as an umbrella over the top of the states and municipal governments, protecting us from the storms. That metaphor works during wars and disasters, but it is not how the founders originally saw things.

The Founders saw the Federal government as a foundational layer beneath everything providing support, common ground and common understanding while the states were the leading organizations that were building a new nation state out of an empty continent. Of course that wasn't true, but that's how they saw it.

People who complain about 'big government' are seeing an umbrella as a force of suppression preventing individuals from doing what they want with their property. They would rather face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The problem is that as they work to remove the umbrella over their heads, they are also succeeding in removing the foundation under their feet, and we are starting to sink. The reason why is because metaphors don't work very well.

I was in politics for years. I have had my viewpoints and opinions challenged, tested and solidified based on decades of observation, reading centuries worth of evidence in all kinds of subjects. I've studied the history of civilization going back 10,000 years, and speculated about the future of civilization going out tens of thousands of years. Some scifi is encouraging, some is not. But there are lessons to be learned from both.

My opinion? The world we build depends not on our technology or our tools, but on our willingness to work together in pursuit of peace OR our desire to work separately in pursuit of power. Are we here to protest what we don't like, or to contest what we don't like by building something better? Decentralization is coming, yes. And whether that leads to a civilization that reaches for the stars or a planet that will disappear when Sol expands to our orbit depends entirely on us.