Story highlights Voters' level of anger has significant impact on their preferences for the next president, the poll showed

Three-quarters of Republicans say government is in need of major reform, compared with 44% of Democrats

Washington (CNN) A sustained outburst of anger and deep disdain for government that has shaped the Republican race for president and confounded the pundits is not going away.

The spirit of insurrection that has powered outsider candidates like Donald Trump to the head of the polls is threatening to close an already narrowing lane for more traditional candidates in the frenzied run-up to the first early voting contests early next year.

A Pew Research Center poll published Monday showed that the deepest suspicion of government, though also elevated among the broader electorate, remains in the Republican Party. The intensity of that sentiment toward the nation's leaders helps explain the turbulent nature of the GOP's 2016 election race and the dominance of Trump.

With his explosive anti-establishment rhetoric, attacks on political correctness and deeply personal swipes at rival candidates, Trump has successfully tapped into this palpable fury in sectors of the Republican primary electorate and has skipped unharmed through controversies -- like branding undocumented immigrants from Mexico rapists and criminals and backing a database for Muslims in the United States -- that might have ended more traditional campaigns.

And with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire now just over two months away from weighing in on the contest, the conventional wisdom that outsider candidates such as Trump and neurosurgeon Ben Carson will fade seems to be on thinner ground than ever before.

Read More