. . . a government that is only the fraction of the size we have now

That's EXACTLY what America started with, as we all know. First the Articles of Confederation (1781 - 1789) and then the much more centralized and authoritarian government under the Constitution. Still, that government was tiny compared to what we have today.

Here are the federal agencies that DID NOT EXIST for the first sixty years or more after the Constitution was ratified:

• Interior 1849
• Agriculture 1889
• Commerce 1913
• Labor 1913
• Health and Human Services 1953
• Housing and Urban Development 1965
• Transportation 1966
• Energy 1967
• Environmental Protection Agency 1970 (elevated to cabinet-level in 1990)
• Education 1979
• Veterans Affairs 1987
• Homeland Security 2002

Your thought, Horsinaround, that "it’s possible the Government as we know it might cease to exist", is something that needs to go viral. A small American government will inevitably once again become a vast American government, and the free people it governs will increasingly again become oppressed.