How essential is the federal government?

Tomorrow will be the fourth day in a row that the federal government will have been shut down because of the unprecedented blizzards (no doubt caused by global warming -- some actually say so) in Washington, DC. Yet the country hasn't fallen apart, there isn't panic in the streets, life has not come to a standstill in the rest of the country. Could it be that we just might be able to get along without Washington's tender ministrations, and perhaps do it on a longer-term basis? That the federal government is not essential to our civic and personal lives? Of course we could do quite nicely without those windbags and busybodies.