In 1999, Gallup asked "Overall, do you think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased or disappointed by the way the United States has turned out?" The question was repeated in June 2001, 2003, June 2008, 2013, and June 2026. In 2007 and 2010, CBS asked a similar question: whether the "founding fathers" would be pleased or disappointed. Finally, in 2010 (January and June), 2011, 2016 and 2017 Fox News asked if the founding fathers would be "proud of the country if they could see it today." Here is the percent positive (pleased or proud) answers:
The breakdown by party identification (June 2010 and June 2016 are unavailable):*
Partisan differences were small and Democratic and Republican opinions moved in the same direction for the first decade or so, but then diverged in 2010. The next figure shows the gap between supporters of the President's party and supporters of the opposition:
For some evaluations, like economic conditions, partisan differences have increased steadily in the 21st century: growing from Bush to Obama, Obama to Trump, Trump to Biden, Biden to Trump II. This is different: the partisan gap was bigger under Obama than in either Trump term (unfortunately the question wasn't asked in the Biden years). Why is this question different? My guess is that people focus on the political situation when answering, and evaluation of the political situation involves views of the opposition as well as the party in power. That is, someone might think that the president was doing a good job but that the founders would be distressed to see the amount or kind of opposition that he was encountering. Of course, Democrats were upset about Republican opposition during the Obama years, but I think they were still somewhat hopeful about winning a clear majority or achieving some bipartisan successes than Republicans are now. As a result, they were more optimistic in assessing the general political situation than Republicans are now.
*I don't show independents in order to keep things simpler. As you'd expect, they are generally in between supporters of the president's party and the opposition, and I don't see any clear changes in their relative position.
[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]
