Job seekers line up for the Recruit Military veteran job fair in San Diego, California, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014. More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the labor market is improving in fits and starts. Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Seven out of 10 Americans say the U.S. economy has been permanently damaged by the Great Recession that started at the end of 2007, according to a new poll.

When the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University asked people about the recession in 2009, only 49 percent said the economy had settled into a crappy new normal. The percentage has increased each year since then, hitting 71 percent this summer.

"Looking at the aftermath of the recession, it is clear that the American landscape has been significantly rearranged," Rutgers professor Cliff Zukin said in a press release. "With the passage of time, the public has become convinced that they are at a new normal of a lower, poorer quality of life."

Curiously, while only 12 percent of respondents said workers in general were happy with their jobs, 63 percent said they were satisfied with their own jobs. That result is in line with a recent Gallup survey, which found Americans' satisfaction with their job security had reached historic highs.

Nevertheless, just 16 percent in the Rutgers survey said things would be better for the next generation -- down from 40 percent in 2009 and 56 percent when researchers asked the same question in 1999. Two-thirds said the recession had a negative effect on their lives.

And few think elected leadership will help, with 78 percent saying they had "not much" or "no confidence at all" that the government would make things better, compared with 59 percent in January 2009.