East Germany or the Soviet Union collapse makes the better comparison. Similar mass delusions among the public that all the debt, wars and breakdown in society is normal or will get better on it’s own. Loss of the rule of law and truth more broadly. Like after the Soviet collapse, you have oligarchs coming in to take over parts of the system and privatize them. This effect creates the authoritarian system that lead to Putin and those around him. The U.S. has its Gorbachev. Even in Soviet society they had a concept called Vranyo, which translated to the fact that the population largely knew the Government was always lying and corrupt, and the Govt knew the population knew they were all lying and corrupt, and anyone who tried to Plato’s Cave it was always shut down across the board from both sides. The mass delusions lasted until the collapse. And even after for many.