I think your read the parent comment wrong. OP is specifically talking about devolving from a high-trust environment to a lower (or low) one. China (afaik) is

I think your read the parent comment wrong. OP is specifically talking about devolving from a high-trust environment to a lower (or low) one. China (afaik) is just an environment with low social trust. That's an interesting counter-argument to OP's last assertion (with whom I agree) since China has +10% economic /year while having really poor social trust standards.