By any measure, social safety net spending is significantly higher than it has ever been. News comes out every day of some new government mandate like paid parental leave, paid personal days, etc.
The minimum wage is creeping higher every day.
Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare spending has never been higher.
We just passed a massive, expensive, entitlement known as Obamacare, which provides (or was supposed to) health insurance to everyone in America.
Obama, during his first term, passed a massive expansion of government-subsidized student loans.
We are in the process of a significant expansion of home loans for low income and people with dodgy credit.
Except for the very limited, bipartisan, welfare reform under President Clinton (which has since basically been reversed), I'm not aware of any shrinking of the welfare state that has happened in the last 20 years.