Yes, that seems to be the case for some societies. Archaeologist Joseph Tainter points this out in The Collapse of Complex Societies. As he argues, a population may endure centuries of escalating diminishing returns on their investments in complexity (i.e., the costs of participating outweigh the benefits experienced) before a tipping point of people make the economic decision to withdraw from and provide support for the sociopolitical system in place. Another aspect is the human tendency to defer to/obey ‘authority’ (see Stanley Milgram’s psychology experiments) that keeps even the skeptics mostly compliant with government edicts regardless of how draconian in nature.