NEW YORK, April 4: More than 80 per cent of Americans believe the country is going in the wrong direction, a CBS News-New York Times poll released on Friday revealed.

The poll was first conducted in the early 1990s. Since then the Americans’ opinion regarding the nation’s situation hasn’t been as bad as it is now.

In 2002, just 35 per cent thought the US is on a wrong course. A year ago the percentage of people unconfident with the way America’s leaders lead the way rose to 69 per cent, and this year the poll showed that about 81 per cent citizens believe “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track”.

The survey comes amid mounting tension over the housing turmoil that rocked the Wall Street. The economic crisis became the most debated issue lately, surpassing the war in Iraq.

The public opinion about America’s situation has changed from good to bad as the war on Iraq began, and from bad to worst as the economic crisis became more and more obvious.

Most Americans polled -- Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school -- consider the country is facing significant problems, the survey published on The New York Times’ website shows.

Seventy-eight per cent of those polled said America was in a worse state than five years ago, while just four per cent said it was better.

About 21 per cent said they believe the overall economy was in good condition. Two in three Americans said they considered the economy was already in recession.

The only figure that didn’t change was that of President George W. Bush’s approval rating, which was just 28 per cent last year.