The golden age of decentralized government was A.D. 900-1066 (yeah, just before the Norman Conquest).

The centralized government ‘innovation’ that William the Conqueror introduced was the King’s exclusive right to land, obliterating the Anglo Saxon landholding tradition from which rights originated. In the Anglo Saxon tradition - you had land, you had rights. In the William Conqueror tradition - you were granted land from the king in return for the obligation to defend the realm.