Bangladesh, Aug. 29 -- Americas institutional decline is often described in grand terms: political polarization, rising debt, bureaucratic dysfunction, declining public trust and the erosion of confidence in government. But beneath those enormous problems lies something much more mundane-and perhaps more corrosive. It is the normalization of using public office as a vehicle for private comfort, political networking and personal enrichment.

The problem is not confined to one political party, one state or one level of government. It is a culture in which officials increasingly appear to regard public resources as an entitlement rather than a responsibility. Hotel rooms, expensive meals, entertainment, travel and campaign-related expenditur...