In the past decade, trust in public institutions has declined in liberal democracies around the world. The optimism about a bright democratic future based on that held sway after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s has waned. In some countries, liberal democracy has been all but extinguished as right-wing populists have gained power and re-imposed authoritarian rule. Some attribute this loss of public confidence to the stresses unleashed by the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-08. The inequalities laid bare by that upheaval did indeed contribute to citizens in many democracies, including Australia, feeling that the system no longer worked for them. The decline in trust, however, preceded both the financial crisis and the sense of threat arising from the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and the subsequent Middle East wars.