I don't mean to bring low value demagougue, I can't help but ask myself, when Hitler rose to power, then being jailed and then rose to power even more, did the normal people who wanted nothing to do with his bs felt the same?
Those viewpoints are always there in society and many people just waiting for the leader who will harness to come. It is one of the hard pills to swallow about humanity that authoritarianism is a popular movement brought forward with cheers and votes.
I think that this viewpoint is only made evident and amplified by the administrations that came before and did not make politics for the common man but a selected few.
Then the need for a "saviour" gets overwhelming for the negleted masses. Especially in a state with a such a religious imprint.
I would stipulate that the viewpoint is always there as you said but acting on it is a product of bad politics that came before.