Discontent with Washington’s budget battles has spurred public dissatisfaction with the federal government to its highest level in nearly 20 years, with attendant political peril on both sides of the debate.

Against a backdrop of broad concern about the impact of default, 80 percent of Americans in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll say they’re "dissatisfied" or even "angry" with the way the federal government is working, up 11 points in a single month.  It last was this high in 1992, during the economic downturn that cost the first President Bush a second term.

The times today are nearly as tough: The ABC News Frustration Index has risen to 72 on its scale of 0 to 100, its highest since just before the 2010 midterm elections and well into the political danger zone.  The index combines dissatisfaction with the government, anti-incumbent sentiment and ratings of the president and the economy alike.

But unlike 1992 or 2010, the opposition party’s taking even more heat than the president.  While President Obama for the first time has fallen under 40 percent approval for handling the economy, the Republicans in Congress do even worse, with 28 percent approval.  On handling the deficit, it’s a weak 38 percent approval for Obama, but a weaker 27 percent for the GOP.  And on handling taxes, Obama has 45 percent approval, the GOP has 31 percent.

Obama maintains 47 percent job approval overall in this poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates.  That’s better than it might be, given the economy and the public’s palpable annoyance with Washington.  And in the budget debate he has some comparative advantages: head-to-head, he leads the congressional Republicans in trust to handle the debt debate, 48 percent to 39 percent.  And while 58 percent say he hasn’t done enough to compromise on the deficit, many more -- 77 percent -- say the same about the GOP leaders.

Those views of intransigence are up by six points for both sides, indicating increased frustration with the budget wrangles.  That includes each side’s own faithful: forty-three percent of liberals say Obama is not willing enough to compromise on the deficit, up 13 points from this spring.

But more conservatives and Republicans, 58 percent in both cases, say GOP leaders aren’t doing enough to compromise; the latter is up by 16 points.  Even among Tea Party supporters, 62 percent say Congressional Republicans have not been willing enough to compromise on the deficit.