While I agree with you about Reagan, I think its important to note that things weren't doing so well which allowed people like Reagan to take over.
(Skip this if you aren't interested in discussing Reagan and related, it's a digression).
That's a good point that needs to be addressed.
Part of the problem is that Republicans are masters as the opposition at attacking and promising all kinds of things if you just give them power.
Remember when Bush ran against Gore, did the country want to continue on the road of Clinton and Democrats? Well, a majority did, but remember Bush's campaign.
He promised no more scandals, a very respectable government, no more of those excessive US military interventions around the world Clinton had done, he said that he wanted a "humble" US foreign policy that would not try to nation-build. He was very pro-peace. He promised integrity and transparency. Economically, after Clinton got the defict down from record levels to zero, Bush said that he would use some of the surplus for a tax cut, and the rest to pay off the total national debt within 10 years.
Are you a little concerned he's only concerned about the rich? He promised to be a "compassionate conservative", so there's no need to vote for Gore.
It's jaw-dropping how much at odds with his policies that campaign was. Reagan was a professional spokesperson, so he was very able to paint a picture of milk and honey. He'd done the same thing running for governor of California - how did a non-politician defeat a very skilled Democratic governor of California in the golden age of the state? It's an educational anecdote.
A key to his election was that he went around attaking the 'radicals'. His advisors said what are you doing? Polls show maybe two percent could care less about that issue, it's not getting you any votes. He told them give him time and they'd care, and sure enough, he pushed the issue over and over, where the press covered it, that he made it into a campaign issue people started to care about, and it fit him very well. (The other key issue as I understand was Governor Brown's opposition to capital punishment).
But with all that, there were big problems - but we also didn't know how well some things were working. After FDR, we'd had zero major banking crises for the first time in American history. Prosperity was shared by all, poor and rich - why would that change? People had no idea.
Fact is, the perception under Carter - who kept us out of war - was that the Iranian hostage taking - a by-product of the Republican removal of democracy in Iran under Eisenrhower - was seen as some terrible foreign policy issue where the US was 'weak', and we needed a 'strong' leader (which they didn't realize meant one who would get Marines blown up in Lebanon, sell missiles to Iran illegally and get 14 top adminitration officials indicted in Iran-Contra funding terrorists and death squads).
And of course there was the inflation, a by-product of problems before him and made worse by the oil embargos from the middle east - a problem Carter inherited, got blamed for, and set the solution in motion with the appointment of Paul Volcker to head the Fed, who Reagan re-appointed and got the credit for the improvements.
So there were problems - but there was a lot very right that was about to get broken.
And there's something that's a problem at times with our voters' judgement, to put it indelicately. With Reagan putting the nation on the wrong course - and borrowing prosperity with unprecedented peacetime deficits - Reagan was re-elected with an enormous electoral majority. 49 of 50 states as I recall, big mistakes. But Bush was re-elected also. Nixon had a massive re-election as well, as horrible as he was, about to become our most despised president in history (until Obama, of course).
But you're right - in part, Carter tried to give some tough talk to the country - about things like the need for energy policy reform - and the country wanted soothing instead.
Probably the most memorable moment of the debates was Reagan using a practiced line he'd saved up on Carter in response to Carter criticizing him on his social security plans - funny thing was Carter turned out to be right, but Reagan got the votes with his polished presentation.
I think to this day most of our country does not appreciate just how much of a wrong course Reagan set the country on. The roots of the massive debt, of the Neocon type security establishment that was behind Iran-Contra and took power against under Bush to push the Iraq war, the anti-labor policies that have hurt workers and unions to today, the deregulation that led to the Savings and Loan crisis and paved the way for more deregulation under Clinton and eventually the 2008 economic crash...
The problems of Carter seem small now. At the time, Reagan was the cowboy the country wanted.
Basically, it was a huge shift away from policies that work and government for the people, towards policies that benefit a few at the expense of nearly all the citizens.
I think Americans feel more powerless to get good government now than they have in many decades - with Obama providing a bit of a reprieve as a compromise.
We've really dodged bullets with McCain/Palin, and Romney/Ryan. 2016 is not pretty.
Your basic point is right, that the issue is the country turning away from its liberal period to Reagan.
Even the two Democrats elected since are not really liberals - Clinton supporting big banks and deregulation, 'the end of welfare and big government' - and Obama pretty close.
The only candidate I recall being very good with a chance in a long time is Howard Dean - the only person I find pretty promising in 2016 is Joe Biden.
Really when you look back at the fact under Carter so much was a lot better about everything from income and wealth distribution, to peace, to corruption (when Reagan was elected, there were about 900 lobbyists compared to over 35,000 today) - but people found Reagan attractive.
Republicans had worked hard in the 1970's to pave the way for a Reagan as well, though, building political organization and right-wing 'think tanks'.
OK, back to public corporations.