By 1988, it became clear that undermining the regulations put into place from the 1930s to the 1970s to control the airline industry, banking, television, and telephones had created chaos. Ronald Reagan had campaigned to get government off the backs of the people. Although Reagan did not abolish any government agencies, Herblock thought that both the president and Congress had undone the codes that had been established to the point that overwhelming debt and decay burdened American citizens.