If the government has never been what you were led to believe then it's time you changed your belief systems. It's not that I necessarily disagree with you, in fact I think it's highly likely that it's not what you were led to expect, and growing to realise that can be a shock. Just bear in mind that although you have spent a large portion of your life living under a New Labour government that this is not the same as if you had spent it under an "old" Labour goverment.
The original Labour movement was intended as a centre-left democratic socialist movement . New Labour, although simply a label and not an official party name, used the phrase "what counts is what works" and was simply a post-Thatcherite centre-right government hiding behind the name of "old" Labour.
So, Thatcher was there in the 80s, giving us grief; there was a brief respite, then Blair continued her work (Chicago School economics all round); Brown was falling apart on us for a brief period and now we have the Tories (essentially, with some LibDem fall-guys) getting ecstatic at the opportunity to bring in full shock-doctrine policies.
Now, if that's what you were led to believe, then you're spot on.
Now this conversation could go on for a while because, frankly, Labour as it used to be was no better - different, but no improvement.
So I'm off to get a cuppa and then I'll come back to this in a day or two...
p.s. whilst I'm away you could try reading
this article and see if anything sounds familiar.