Circumstances have changed over the past 200 years. Government has grown mightily. And we have been overtaken by the cult of spending, the political reward you get from bribing taxpayers with their own money. No politician was ever turned out of office simply because he said to somebody, that, yes, they could have whatever they wanted. Special interest groups have proliferated.
People have a right to come and petition their government.
If we are going to pass laws that affect people's lives, we have to expect people to come in and tell us what effect that is going to have. But interest groups have a carrot and stick for every member of Congress. The carrot is financing them. The stick is working against their reelection. Those are powerful motivations for more and more spending.