SCOTUS and the constitution act as limiting factors on the government's power, that does not disprove the general rule that government power tends to increase over time.
I was not disproving that a typical govt increases in power over time, only that "governments only ever increase power" isn't true.
There are steps forward, steps back, and then the general trend. Considering the fact that the US used to have millions of slaves (whose ownership was Constitutional and enforced law police), weaker freedom of speech, lower bars for police searches, and no FOIA, I'd suggest the general trend here since 1776 is a decreasing power of govt.
Example: https://blogs-images.forbes.com/waynecrews/files/2017/08/Pub..., including both actual passed laws and agency rulemaking. Also see https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2733378