Is that the founding principles you mean? Because George Washington had nothing good to say about them after having tried them during his terms in office.
But over many years through a combination of Supreme Court decisions, legislation, and executive decisions, authority has become more concentrated in the hands of the Federal government than in the state/local government, or left to the individual.
That's not to say that it's all bad - civil rights, for example was a hugely important movement only made possible by moving some power away from the states. But to deny that it has happened isn't right either.
No, I was not referring to the Articles of Confederation. I was instead referring to the system of limited government defined by the Constitution.
(the tone of this post has been set by the federalist and anti-federalist pamphlets that lead up to the Constitutional convention, some words have been changed for clarity)