I've had this argument with other people in the past and am willing to have it with you: the idea of a new and unprecedented amount of government "meddling" in

I've had this argument with other people in the past and am willing to have it with you: the idea of a new and unprecedented amount of government "meddling" in the otherwise "free" market is a myth. The sea change of the 20th century lay entirely in bringing the machinery of government to bear in favor of people it had previously been used against, and against people it had previously been used in favor of. And of course the people who previously were favored see this as new and invasive interference, because they had grown so used to being the favored parties that they simply took for granted that "free market" = "system rigged in my favor".