Maybe that's what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he said that there is a natural tendency for government to grow and for liberty to yield. The process just discussed is enough to keep government programs going for a long time. But it is always possible that after a while, enough citizens could get so angry by the injustice of a welfare-state program that they actively oppose it even if the financial reward isn't large. In other words, ideology could outweigh mere material interest. To prevent that, the designers of programs like to keep things from being too clear.
Some plunder is obvious.
But more subtle methods can be used. Here is where deception and obfuscation enter. The citizens are told that there is no subsidy because not a penny of taxpayers' money goes to the special interest in question. That could be true, but it is deceptive. Many subsidies are not direct cash grants.