The details are found
here. Nice little racket--the federal government consolidates power and the states are willing to give them that power in return for federal funding. Of course, localities suffer the most thanks to this arrangement since the federal government knows far, far less about the affairs of localities than the localities do themselves. The vision of the Founders and their dreams for a federalist set-up suffers as well, but I am sure that most people are unfamiliar enough with history to ensure that this little fact won't trouble their sleep all that much.