SALENA ZITO: Americans don’t trust anymore, and that’s a big problem.

Whom do we trust? The answer, it appears, is no one.

Well, that’s not entirely true. We trust our military, and in fact that trust has grown, said Richard Edelman, CEO of one of the world’s largest public relations consultancies. “Outside of that we are in such a crisis with trust that our faith and connection with the integral parts of our society is in collapse,” he said.

Edelman’s firm has been conducting the Trust Barometer survey for 17 years; last year the bottom dropped out and he is not quite sure how that tangible connection people have with institutions and expertise can be restored.

Only 43 percent of people said they trust the media; a whopping 5 percent drop from last year. Government came in even lower, at 41 percent; trust in military has grown, and trust in business is a bit stronger than the media and government, but not by much.

The question is why?

At a guess it’s because we have a lot more government than we need, but a lot less than we actually pay for.