The loss of faith in institutions has been building for some time, but it  crystallized in late 2001. The 9/11 terrorist attacks, the anthrax scare, the Enron scandal and the clergy abuse scandal all hit within about six months of each other and shook people's confidence in institutions they'd once thought rock-solid.

In Scripture stories of conversion are often preceded by crisis. People lose faith in one things and seek it elsewhere. That's why the Gospels include the prophecy of the destruction of the temple (which had already taken place when they were written.) It was a cautionary tale about putting too much faith in anything of human construction.

That would include both religious and political institutions.