Those seeking to verify identities and personas are free to ignore whatever roots or trust chains they choose. Edge cases aside, the US government (in the case of your example) still holds and projects trust value (not sure how many US passports per day are used to validate citizenship, employment eligibility, and entry requirements at nation state borders, I assume it's quite a bit).

Trust is hard (there are entire industries around it), but the notion that it's impossible should not be entertained. It's a core component of modern civilization.