What are they "supposed" to do?

What is the primary obligation of the Federal government?  First and foremost, to protect the nation from threats, foreign and domestic.  To make sure that the infrastructure is in place and monitored.  To ensure that the citizens are informed.

Let's talk about that last bit, "informed".  Does informed mean educated?  Many think so and may be correct as long as educated means fact based, non-rhetorical or biased information being taught.  On the other hand, many other people think it is a parents responsibility to see to their children's education and the federal government needs to step back to a role of making sure resources are available for parents to choose from to provide said education.

Informed also means that it is the governments task to make sure that people are doing honest business with each other so that citizens can make informed decisions.  Now, even if any given individual citizen makes a poor decision, it is their decision for them to make.  If they had the information up front and came to  poor decision anyway, it's their own fault and consequence.  Not anyone else's.

Instead, the federal government has been slowly removing liberty by falsifying information or not providing information from the start.  They hide information and they conspire with corporations who line their pockets to conceal product information as well.

Making sure people are properly and openly informed is one of the greatest tasks the federal government has yet it is one of the most abused.

Making sure people have access to important information and resources is a great enough task.  Trying to force people to use it or to intentionally not provide it is simply abuse of power.