Incremental collectivism is difficult to spot; it is sloth-like in its deliberation, but it does move and sometimes it helps to look back down the road to see how far it has come. Maybe that's also the only way to see where it's going. Americans continue to think they live in a republic, but the republic is alive only when the Constitution is being faithfully read and adhered to, not when it is largely disregarded or interpreted into nothingness, especially where case law is considered "settled."
What clause allows for an establishment of a Department of Education? Well, the "necessary and proper" clause, of course. Except that the necessary and proper clause only applies to those limited powers enumerated in the body of the Constitution. Same with the "Commerce Clause" they have used to implement all manner of collectivism.
So, we discover that a school board dumps Common Core and grades soar in that school district. The point is that all of these things government takes control of are not simply mismanaged or screwed up, it is the intended purpose of these programs to deaden the senses of the people, encourage stupidity and make them open to the propaganda for collectivism and generally wear down the power of individualism and capitalism, while blaming individualism and capitalism for the dysfunction the government program is intentionally creating.
Our treasury is swamped by collectivist programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions and everything government has promised to provide for the people. Collectivists will point to the military budget as the culprit that dominates the budget, but it is the promises made to future generations that will bring the system down. This is because we allowed the con to be played. The military budget is huge, but largely due to the fact that it protects every socialist government in the Western world, who do not bother to build up their own military defenses when they can count on the United States military power to defend them against Russia or China or both. Since we have gone socialist, we will not be able to do that for them or ourselves.
And, they will blame individualism and capitalism for the failures of socialism and collectivism. Eventually, this inevitability plays out. Who will defend the principles that allowed the United States to grow from a small, largely agrarian nation to the powerful industrial defender it has been for the past hundred plus years?
We are at a point now where former CIA Directors suggest a coup against the sitting President of the United States and the collectivist press cheers the idea on. And yet, this treason is allowed. That is how far we have come toward a collectivist state. The whole layer of government just below the surface is rabid communist and it took someone like Trump to expose them. But, we do nothing about it, we look on in curiosity, because it is the President's task to do something with his entire law enforcement apparatus available to him.
Or, we just throw up the hammer and sickle.