The perception is created by billionaires buying "news" media to spread propaganda to get people to vote against their own interests, leading to "hurts itself in its confusion" attitudes like "keep the government out of my Medicare".
The Kochs, leaders of the "small government" movement are the heirs of a billionaire whoade his fortune building oil refinery for communist USSR government. They only dislike government when it helps the people instead of the oligarchs.
Ironically the thing about the Kochs is a little bit reversed. They have their own agenda, to be sure, but the biggest players in the influence game aren't individual billionaires, they're corporations and government bureaucracies.
The media always dumps on the Kochs because, atypically, part of their agenda is anti-graft. Make the government smaller by reducing corrupt spending programs and regulatory capture. Most of the bureaucracies fight each other for resources but they're not trying to turn off the spigot. The one who does becomes a target for attack. So they're the ones you've heard of.
The Kochs, leaders of the "small government" movement are the heirs of a billionaire whoade his fortune building oil refinery for communist USSR government. They only dislike government when it helps the people instead of the oligarchs.