How Americans really feel about their country on 33 key issues, and how that has changed over 40 years

Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Americans' overall happiness has been surprisingly stable over the past four decades.

Americans have strong opinions.

And now with President Trump - who ran an antiestablishment and populist campaign to win the White House - set to give a speech to a joint session of Congress this Tuesday, we're taking a look at how they view some of the big issues facing the country, as well as the major institutions that make up American political and civic life.

The "General Social Survey," a project of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, has been tracking several aspects of American life since 1972. Business Insider looked at the results of several survey questions about Americans' views on social issues, confidence in institutions, and federal-spending priorities between the 1970s and 2014, the most recent year for which data is available.

Here's how those attitudes have changed over the past four decades.