Uh, no. The 40% number is completely wrong. We only topped 40% during WWII. We've been very consistently around 20% during non-recession years where it goes up largely because GDP goes down. We topped 30% for 2020 during a massive contraction and countercyclical stimulus. It will be back down in the low 20s for 2022. We not only are not on a runaway spending trend and we have survived shocks really, really well. Fiat has served society incredibly well. I'd sooner take a year of 8% inflation over bread lines due to deflationary spiral.
Edit: This chart is federal spending only, total gov spending is higher but OP is still probably looking at 2020 as the most recent data and it's a huge outlier due to the pandemic.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=O7F4
Edit: This chart is federal spending only, total gov spending is higher but OP is still probably looking at 2020 as the most recent data and it's a huge outlier due to the pandemic.