Nearly 60 percent of Americans believe things are going badly in the US, the largest share to say so in more than two years, a new poll has found.

The new CNN/ORC poll published on Wednesday shows that, overall, 57 percent of survey participants say things in the US are going badly today, while 42 percent say they are going well.

This marks a downturn compared to a similar poll that was conducted in November. Then, only 50 percent of Americans said things were going badly and 42 percent said things were going well.

Meanwhile, nearly 80 percent of the participants said they felt poorly represented by the government, up from 75 percent in October, and 68 percent in July last year.

However, the negative figures did not seem to affect President Barack Obama’s approval ratings at the start of his last year in the White House.

The CNN poll found that 47 percent of Americans approve of the US president’s performance, while 49 percent do not.

This is well above what his predecessor George W. Bush experienced in his final year in office, with 34 percent approval rating in January 2008.

This is, however, less than Bill Clinton's rating at this stage of his presidency where 64 percent approved of his job in January 2000. The figure is about on par with Ronald Reagan’s 49 percent approval rating in January 1988.

In late November, a survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 19 percent of the US public said they could trust the government “always or most of the time,” which among the lowest levels in the past 50 years.

Pew also found that the public’s feelings about government have tended toward frustration and anger, as 57 percent said they were “frustrated” and 22 percent said they were “angry” at the federal government.