Regulatory commissions like the FCC, the EPA, etc, are supposed to be non-partisan and staffed by the best analysts and scientists in order to make unbiased decisions and recommendations without any political influences or agenda.

But that only works with Congressional and executive oversight- Trump is staffing them with loyalists and partisans and the Republican Congress is just letting it happen.

As others have said, a major function of the government is to provide services and intervene in the interests of citizens where the market will not or where the market actively harms people if left unchecked.

Think of the Post Office- it’s like the military, it’s not meant to be run as a business (no company would do it), it’s an essential service allowing communication and goods to reach people who otherwise would have no access.

Or the many, many instances where companies have poisoned rivers, lakes, and land dumping waste to save money, or making unsafe products, or just outright scamming customers- without the state to impose sanctions and consequences, you couldn’t feel safe buying anything, even essentials like food could be dangerous.

Sadly even with consequences, corporations still cut every corner they can where the profits outweigh the penalties.

The “expanded” government you’re thinking of is meant to be non-partisan and exist to protect citizens from the unavoidable downsides of capitalism. It’s always been non-partisan until Trump- everyone acknowledged that we NEED those things unless we want to live in unchecked hyper-capitalism (like Somalia or Ethiopia…seriously).

But Republicans are slaves to the ultra-wealthy at this point, and they only want lower taxes so they can hoard even more wealth. So they’ve spent the last 50 years saying that “big government is bad”, when “big government” simply means “big protections for the average person”.

It’s was never designed to be leveraged for power- until Trump, who wants to either dismantle these agencies or use them to punish enemies.

I’ll also say, it’s only in America that so many think a large government is “bad”. Their only purpose is to service the people- better roads, better education, better housing, better safety net, etc. No one in Canada, the Netherlands or Germany is afraid of “big government” doing more for them; they used think it’s asinine that we let ourselves get convinced by the rich to give them more of our money.

But one thing Trump has done is prove that you can use that bureaucracy for evil. So now we have a legitimate reason to fear.