The ongoing Benghazi investigation, the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, the DOJ collecting journalists’ phone records, the NSA surveillance revelations, the continuously bumpy ObamaCare rollout, and etcetera — it’s tough to pinpoint the precise effect any one debacle is having on the president’s approval rating, but it looks like the collective effect of the snowballing scandals and bureaucratic failures is definitely starting to manifest itself. A new national CNN/ORC poll pegs Obama’s approval rating at just 45 percent — the lowest he’s scored in over a year and a half and a drop of eight percentage points over just the past month.

The president’s approval rating stands at 45%, down from 53% in mid-May. And 54% say they disapprove of how Obama’s handling his job, up nine points from last month. It’s the first time in CNN polling since November 2011 that a majority of Americans have had a negative view of the president.

“The drop in Obama’s support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. …

“It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama’s standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well,” adds Holland.

Six in 10 disapprove of how Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens, which is higher than the 52% who disapproved of George W. Bush on the same issue in 2006, when government surveillance was also in the headlines. …

The number of Americans who think he is honest has dropped nine points over the past month, to 49%.

The fact that the president’s approval ratings on the regular issues of the economy, the deficit, and immigration dropped a few points or so each would seem to confirm that Scandalmania is a huge part of what’s doing it, and the big news is the major drop among the reliably largely pro-Obama youth contingent. Combine that with the 61 percent of Americans who disapprove of the the government’s surveillance and the serious downgrade in trust, and it sounds like the NSA story especially is not helping him maintain his favor among the Millennials — time for another look at the GOP going more libertarian?