They are, but there is still more trust in the government. Speaking for the Chinese perspective - there are objective measures that most people can evaluate to

They are, but there is still more trust in the government. Speaking for the Chinese perspective - there are objective measures that most people can evaluate to say that their government has been successful. Sure, there's always disinformation on WeChat and such, but in general the central government is seen as competent and corruption is tolerated as an acceptable part of that. Remember that for the older generation, they literally went from rationing, food shortages, no education, etc., to now what we see of Shanghai/Beijing, their kids have decent access to higher education, travel, consumer goods, etc. Even South Korea/Japan/Taiwan have an older generation who can remember the difficulties of a past era. The real question is whether this trend can continue forward. My bet is yes for the foreseeable future, but no power system lasts forever. So while we're seeing the gradual (seeming) decline of the West, we'll probably be repeating the pattern in a few decades for East Asia.