Yes he recognizes that the characteristics defining the US government behavior have been in a state of change since day 1. Governmental changes are changed based upon the cultural, economic, and the basic societal environment that exists in each era. It's hard to critique and judge government actions and behaviors in the past by using today's moral, economic, average public mindset, and ethical standards .And a lot of people argue the changes taking place somehow represents a decline when in fact the US government and the US in general has never reached the pinnacle of civilized governance and behavior from which to decline from. We have a Constitution serving as the bedrock of government behavior and societal responsibilities but even that document stated "all men are created equal" when in fact this basic idea was demonstrably false. Changes have been made for 200+ years and we still have some more work to do before "all men created equal" idea is an actual realized in practice..I have always believed the Constitutional ideas and protections serves a goal to strive towards and there are still changes needed before we can reach that goal.