If people don't trust a system that raised them, there are inherent flaws with the system that it is either unable or unwilling to address

Just because X is bad doesn’t imply Y isn’t worse

Sure, but a major flaw of the American system is that it's deliberately pushing its people into being distrustful of the system (and each other). Not trusting the government, or wanting to make it less effective, is considered a virtue in many parts of America. (And it's not just the conservatives.)

> it's deliberately pushing its people into being distrustful of the system (and each other)

A little bit of skepticism isn't a bad thing. Teaching kids that politicians can be corrupt isn't bad

What is bad is teaching people that society and govt are inherently corrupt. That's a recipe for disaster

Yes, but those flaws are not simply among the people these criticisms are leveled at.

Technocratic autocracy created the issues, but the response is typically "so add more technocratic autocracy".

It's not just those evil billionaires (read, people in the .1 percent whereas being on HN makes you highly likely to be in the 1%) manipulating society, it's Good, Honest, Educated professionals who are making incorrect or reactionary decisions regularly and doubling down when called on it.

How are you measuring that?

To say "trust the system" requires a religious inclination that many don't have

This statement only makes sense on a philosophical level.

Actually, it is incorrect on that level also. Religious faith is only one form of faith, there are many others.

This would seem to presume an opaque system whose workings are entirely unknowable with divine providence... rather than something constructed, operated, and controlled by humans.