(TNND) — Gallup found declining trust in a number of professions held by everyday Americans.

Nurses are seen in the most positive light among the 23 professions Gallup asked about, but even nurses have seen their ratings drop in recent years.

Gallup asked Americans if they thought of people with various jobs as honest and ethical.

About three-quarters of people rate nurses as highly honest and ethical.

On the opposite end of the list, just 4% of people rate lobbyists as highly honest and ethical.

Overall trust seems to be eroding, as Gallup showed about a 10-percentage point drop in the average “high” rating among 11 of the professions that Gallup has consistently tracked for the last 25 years.

Nurses, grade-school teachers, military officers, pharmacists and medical doctors currently enjoy majority positive ratings, according to Gallup.

Day care providers, funeral directors, police officers, auto mechanics, clergy and judges all earn net positive, but not majority, high ratings for ethics and honesty.

Bankers, local officeholders, nursing home operators, lawyers, newspaper reporters, state officeholders, business executives, cars salespeople and advertising practitioners have net negative ratings.

And a majority of Americans hold negative opinions of the honesty and ethics of TV reporters, members of Congress and lobbyists.

Gallup said it began measuring public trust in various professions nearly 50 years ago. And the overall decline in trust for various professions mirrors the long-term decline in Americans’ confidence in U.S. institutions, it said.

“We know for a fact that society is becoming less trustful of institutions,” said Tabitha Bonilla, who studies political behavior at Northwestern University.

She said Americans are growing more “comfortable being distrustful of groups.”

We live in politically polarized times, and she said that’s a factor in these Gallup polls.

But it’s hard to say if a lack of trust is causing polarization or vice versa.

Bonilla said our community ties are also weakening.

Fewer Americans are regular churchgoers.

American pride has taken a hit in recent years.

Americans live in an increasingly fragmented news environment.

The U.S. surgeon general even warned of the "fraying of the social fabric" in his 2023 advisory on an "epidemic" of loneliness and isolation.

“I just conducted a study of interviews of grade-school teachers, partly because I do think the political environment is kind of turning toward professions,” Bonilla said Monday.

Teachers are one such profession that’s increasingly talked about in the political realm, she said.

“And as things are polarizing, we're kind of talking more negatively about people,” she said.

Over 60% of Americans in the new Gallup survey said they see teachers as highly honest and ethical.

Grade-school teachers are viewed more favorably than any other profession other than nurses in the Gallup survey.

But even teachers have seen a 13-percentage point drop in their rating since 2000, according to Gallup.

Americans are less satisfied with the quality of K-12 education. But there's also a growing disparity between how people see our educational system in general and how they view their local teachers and schools.

Clergy have seen the biggest drop in favorable opinion since 2000, with their “high” ethical rating falling 26 percentage points.

Judges, police officers, doctors, pharmacists and bankers have also seen double-digit drops over the last quarter of a century.

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Bonilla noted that a lot of Americans don’t have personal experiences with some of the worst-viewed professions.

Not a lot of folks know or regularly interact with lobbyists, lawmakers, TV reporters or people who work in advertising.

“They kind of become a prototype of the group,” Bonilla said.

But people do regularly interact with some of the best-viewed professions, including nurses, teachers and pharmacists.

“The more distance you perceive between you and someone else, the more comfortable you are having a bad relationship with that person,” Bonilla said.