The erosion of trust in democracies isn't about the act of corruption, but the nature of the promise. Democracies operate on high-resolution, precise contracts that attempt to surgically separate the Office from the Person. Ironically, democracies try to build machines out of people, while autocracies simply accept that the machine is a person.

Autocracies are low-resolution systems trading on vague promises of 'order' and the explicit assumption of prerogative. In that framework, an official favoring their own isn't 'breaking' the machine; they are exercising it. You can't lose trust in a promise of impartiality that was never made. For the democratic actor, corruption is a breach of contract; for everyone else, it’s just the weather.