WASHINGTON, May 31: Americans’ faith in their government has fallen off from the patriotic levels seen after the Sept 11 attacks, according to a study released on Thursday.

Revelations that the Immigration and Naturalization Service approved student visas for two of the Sept. 11 hijackers months after they died carrying out the attacks and the FBI’s mishandling of information that may have prevented the attacks, have sparked widespread criticism in recent weeks.

But the sinking level of confidence cannot be blamed entirely on such snafus, said analysts at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank that conducted the survey.

“The decline in trust over the past eight months may signal nothing more significant than the return of the normal ebb-and-flow of public attitudes towards government,” Paul Light, director of Brookings’ Center for Public Service, said in a statement.

A nationwide survey of 986 people conducted between May 2 and May 12 showed 40 percent of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing, down from 57 percent in October 2001. In July 2001, 29 percent of Americans polled said they trusted the government.

At a news conference to release the study, Light said the results of the May survey marked a return to the long-term decline in confidence in government since the early 1960s, when three-quarters of the population said they trusted the government.

Nevertheless, overall approval ratings for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney remained high — 75 percent and 69 percent respectively. The approval ratings were well above pre-Sept. 11 levels of 57 percent each, but they slipped from October’s levels of 83 percent and 74 percent.—Reuters