(TNND) — Americans aren’t happy with many aspects of our society, a "national mood" survey published Wednesday by Gallup showed.

Gallup asked about 31 different aspects of the country, including the overall quality of American life, taxes, race relations, gun policies, health care, homelessness and more.

Americans’ average satisfaction across the different areas included in the survey was just 38%, remaining at the record low for the Gallup tracking that goes back about 25 years.

That 38% held for the fourth straight year in the latest survey, conducted Jan. 2-15.

Before that, it never dipped below 40%.

The series high was 54% in 2002.

“There's been a trend downwards, and then COVID obviously broke through the floor,” said Casey Burgat, the Legislative Affairs Program Director at George Washington University. “And there hasn't been any recovery in any meaningful sense of the word, despite the world opening back up and people getting back to normal.”

Burgat said the general dissatisfaction among the American people was “disheartening,” because he knows how hard it’ll be to reverse that trend.

And he said politicians looking to win elections might not be incentivized to make people feel better about their country, because the dissatisfaction can be “weaponized.”

Politicians can point out the perceived problems and vow to be the ones to fix them, Burgat said.

Oklahoma State University politics professor Seth McKee said there’s a “leadership crisis in this country.”

Gallup, of course, found majority satisfaction with some of the 31 aspects it asked Americans about.

Gallup found Americans mostly satisfied in five areas, mixed in three, and mostly dissatisfied in the rest.

But McKee said the bigger picture of dissatisfaction is pretty understandable, because “we're so divided.”

“And so, when you look at these opinions, especially when they break on partisan lines, it makes perfect sense,” McKee said.

Partisans were at odds on 13 of the issues.

Majorities of Republicans were satisfied, while majorities of Democrats were dissatisfied, with seven areas: gun laws, the position of Black and other racial minority people, the position of women, the influence of organized religion, the quality of the environment, the opportunity for a person to get ahead through hard work, and the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the nation.

Democrats were satisfied, while Republicans were dissatisfied, in six areas: the role the U.S. plays in world affairs, the nation's military strength and preparedness, the nation’s security from terrorism, the state of the nation’s economy, the size and power of the federal government, and the level of immigration into the country today.

“If you want to look at these things through an electoral lens, the economy is always what seems to be front and center for the American voter,” McKee said.

Overall, Gallup found just 34% of people are satisfied with the state of the nation’s economy.

Colorado State University economist Stephan Weiler said there are a lot of clues in the Gallup survey about why people are unhappy with the economy.

“Relative to the economy as a whole, people are even unhappier with income distribution/inequality, poverty/homelessness, immigration, taxes, healthcare affordability, and the size/influence of major corporations,” Weiler said via email. “The last one is perhaps the most interesting, as the economic divide between everyday folks and the titans of corporate America are particularly on show right now as the billionaires crowd around the President. And meanwhile you have those job market numbers looking awfully squishy.”

Sixty-nine percent of people were dissatisfied with the way income and wealth are distributed, and 72% of people were dissatisfied with the size and influence of major corporations.

RELATED STORY: Career expert offers advice for frustrated job seekers

The highest overall satisfaction in the survey was with our military strength and preparedness.

Over 60% of Americans expressed satisfaction with our military.

"The American public knows that the military has no choice but to prioritize our national security, and that our nation as a whole has continued to prioritize our position as the strongest military in the world,” Allison Jaslow, the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said via email. “While politics may have gotten the best of the rest of our society, the defense of our nation continues to be an area that unites more than divides, and why members of the military and our veterans are in a unique position to lead us forward in this moment."

As President Donald Trump moves to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, the Gallup survey found that less than a quarter of Americans are satisfied with the quality of public education in the nation.

Adam Laats, a professor of education and history at Binghamton University in New York, said that’s not unusual to see in national surveys.

But he said Americans are usually happy with their local schools.

“Headlines and clickbait give Americans plenty to worry about: falling test scores, racially and economically segregated schools, dilapidated school buildings, scandals among teachers or administrators, ideologically driven teaching, and so on. But here’s the thing: when surveys ask a follow-up question about parents’ satisfaction with their children’s public schools, they get a very different answer,” Laats said via email. “Large majorities of those respondents say they are highly satisfied with real, working, local schools, even if they have fears or doubts about the state of American public education as a whole.”