So... what happens if/when people discover that this is not in fact the solution to their problems?

It has been an article of faith for decades that the government is the problem. But the people who say that have never actually gone about cutting it. That has created a perpetual cycle of demanding to end the government, and then not doing it. That makes the government a permanent villain in their minds.

Now they're doing it. Probably, they're doing it harder than most of their supporters imagined. Some of it may be restrained by courts, but it appears that the government will be drastically cut regardless.

Maybe the government really is the problem, and we'll all get along better with a civil service in shambles. If so, yippee.

But conversely, suppose that things don't get better? I'm not even talking about the scenario where the economy crashes, international influence disappears, etc. I just mean that things just tick along as they always have -- just as in the past, Presidential administrations haven't actually had dramatic day-to-day effects on people's lives.

In that scenario, what will be the reaction of people whose primary goal was to purge the civil service? Will they continue to stress the same point? Demand even more punishment for their political opponents? Cooperate to build a new government more in line with their wishes?