Not totally true. Nixon created both OSHA and the EPA at a time when they were sorely needed. With OSHA, unions and employers alike really weren't taking worker safety seriously. Yea, all you union lovers, your union didn't give a shit about your safety. Anyway, there were over 100,000 serious injuries on the job in the US every year. Tens of thousands of people died in work related accidents.
The EPA was needed at a time when there were rivers catching fire, huge chemical dumps accumulating, and air pollution was like China's today.
What happened over time is these agencies saw a combination of bureaucrats and Leftists move in. The result of that was they've gotten a "zero tolerance" mentality now. That is, they think that unless something is 100% safe or pollution is at zero, they haven't done enough. Today they're exponentially driving up the cost of everything they regulate for near zero improvements on the stuff regulated.
So, good ideas with good intentions turned into evil ideas with destruction as their goal.
Unions fought for contracts that stressed work safety. It had been one of their main fights since the 1930s. https://aflcio.org/issues/workplace-health-and-safety
