Its quite simple really. "It's a job", "Not my problem". "ehh, change is hard"
It's really general aloofness. As I've pointed out efore, if say, every signle person is Syria, military, plitical leaders, everyone, decided Asssad is no longer the President, he pretty much is now a hobo by collective opinion. By definition, a leader with no followes is nothing. But the problem is, even when there are protests and such, people are so loyal and stuck in there ways that even if someone physically locked him out of the palace gates, he's still in control. Because you think he is. It's all perception, and legitamacy. The Militias of Libya have decided they don't give a rats ass what the government thinks, and they are, therefore, completely unchecked.
Once you break past the norms of society you can do anything. But they are there for a reason. Humans naturally just do what their told. Max White, no one "Thinks" it though like you do. Your passionate. This is their job. Think about that, you accept a ton of shit though your job. Do you flip off your employer? No, because you're scrwed if you do. What if everyone flips off your boss? Then he's screwed, but a event like that will not happen under normal circumstances.
Think of it like this. If someone locked obama out of the Oval office and sat in his chair demanding bills to sign, is he president? No. Because people remain loyal to the president. And the people says Obama is president, even if a milkman takes over the whitehouse. When you win elections, it is because the people recognize it as the ceremony of choosing the Prez. If they recognized, say, America's top Model, then that's how we decide.
And when I say people, I mean EVERYONE. If NO ONE, no one at ALL, listens to the government, it is nothing. It is a particularly powerful corporation at best. Consider this, in 1920s, when the Radicalist Freikorps, the Weimar republic greatest weapon against Communism, decided they had had enough of listening to them, the Government declared a General Strike. Because they were the LEGITAMATE government, and Germans are very order-following, everyone complied, and the plotters were forced to flee out of sheer frustration.
TL;DR If, right now, everyone in the US decided Hans should be president, and Is president, there is nothing in heaven or hell anyone can do to stop him. He is, for all intents and purposes, the President. Sure, he may not be in the White house, but he is, now president. Because, despite what it seems like, it's all just words. Contracts, words. Laws, are words. If people decided there was no constitution anymore, there isn't. It all relies on people doing it simply because it is. And they do. It's human nature. It's hard to think, that there really is only a government by mutual agreement.