The counter argument is that society needs rules and a way to manage the big picture. The US constitution, if followed, the federal govt has very limited powers basically to mediate disputes between the states, the protect the various states from external forces, and to ensure one state does not impose its will on the others

Arguably that pretty much worked untill the civil war. When a group of states decided that the federal government was too powerful and was trying to control things it should not (I am not arguing the right or wrong of the main southern cause, we all know that answer). The federal government took on the role that all power structures take, they entrenched and actively fought to maintain power.

That does not mean that govt is inherently bad, it is more the weakness of the human condition... Some lust for power and some are all to willing to give it up. Us that are stuck in the middle suffer.