Not necessarily.
Both Putin and Erdogan (many others as well, Orban, Gruevski, to name a few), were elected under promises to bring prosperity through democracy.
Carefully targeting vulnerable groups with PR and economic engineering has proven itself a great tactic for achieving their autocratic vision.
edit: spelling.
There's always going to be a candidate like that to vote for, and democracy can only survive as long as voters prefer candidates who uphold democracy.