It's a drug addition. Opium (OPM) Other-People's-Money.
Everyone want's something for nothing, or rather, at the expense of someone else. At every level, the citizen expects more but doesn't want to pay more. This is particularly manifest by those who receive Government assistance (welfare, etc), or other Gov't "entitlements", even Social Security (because the elderly collect far more than they & their employer ever paid into the fund).
As a result, politicians have seen this is how to get (re)elected. Promise the voter more than is affordable. There are people drawing welfare who are at least the 3rd generation of welfare recipients. Why did the unfortunate/disadvantaged parent or grandparent not make the effort that their child or grandchild bettered themselves?
Social Security was never intended to be a retirement program. It was to provide the bare essentials of some unfortunate person who lost everything (such as in the depression). Now a large segment of society sees it as their "retirement" and think it should be sufficient to allow them to "live the life" of all those who were responsible and saved for the future. COLAs were added to SS and Gov't pensions to compensate in the years of runaway inflation. They are still there even though inflation is low. COLAs are no different than welfare as the recipient never paid in the funds to pay for this annual increase.
It's a snowball that will crash eventually and be an avalanche of a disaster.
Doc