Maybe they've just gotten disillusioned with new bosses who turn out to be just as bad and authoritarian as the ones they replaced ? Probably also the phenomenom that usually happens when the populace feels the governement isn't "for" them but pretty much a gang of greedy thugs at best - they try to ignore it as much as possible and get on with their lives without getting trodden on. Very common in acutely dysfunctional adminstrations, a description which AFAIK covers just about the whole Arab world and most of the Muslim world too.