A strange thought about governments and people in America

I had a strange thought recently, about how the various governments work and their relationships with the people they govern. It occurred to me that at some point, in the history of the country, the intent of a government (local, state, federal, etc.) was to serve the needs of the people, and to act in their best interests. It would stand to reason that the first governments at various levels probably did act in the interests of the people who elected them, and they were probably even respected at some point as people serving the community.

It seems like a foreign concept to me, having grown up in a society where every level of government is so thoroughly corrupt, elitist, self-serving, and malignant that it's common knowledge that even if the people in power happen to be doing what you want, it's only because someone paid them enough money to do so, and/or because it's in their own interests. It seems strange to think that at some point in history, the biggest threat to the principles of the country wasn't the government, and people may have thought the government actually was there to help, instead of the well-understood dark joke that has uniformly become. It's a strange realization that the world you know may not have always been the world that was, and makes me wonder how our society failed so badly, and if America is indeed beyond redemption as it appears to be, would there be any way to try to ensure that the next one fares better... food for thought.