People put up with it for the same reason they always put up with this kind of stuff: they're given a bigger enemy to focus on, one that is or much worse and pe

People put up with it for the same reason they always put up with this kind of stuff: they're given a bigger enemy to focus on, one that is or much worse and people are never let to forget that. Of course by comparison it looks like you actually have it good. And you slowly forget, or ignore, that you have it "good by comparison" but you also have it worse year after year. The other thing is that not everyone gets to suffer. Under any form of government the ones that are on the leadership's "good side" will benefit or simply not suffer obviously. The others get to suffer. In democracy this might be the "dictatorship of the majority", and if that majority doesn't care enough to vote for fixing the country's problems instead of their individual problems, or is complacent with the current situation based on the above "doesn't suffer obviously" then by the time they do somebody already consolidated power or subverted that democratic process. Or perhaps some of the people just shifted to the minority and get to see that side. It's hard for people to see the real problems as long as their interests temporarily align with their leadership's. Just like the famous "First they came ..." quote. The person who uttered it got to live through this transition from being on the good side of the leadership, seeing his own interest, to the less pleasant side seeing too late what it was for the others.