The sad thing is, many people don't realize this is also true of their government, and choose to believe in some democratic mythology that common people can determine their own future.
I cannot count the number of debates I have been in with people who believe what they are told, and through horizontal social pressure, believe what everyone else believes. They will adamantly defend a paradigm which they accepted without question, without consideration.
A good example of this phenomenon was the fall of the Soviet Union. One day, people just stopped believing in Communism and the state, and within a week, the second biggest country in the world lost its government.
While that loss of faith was not accompanied by better ideas that might have lead the Russians somewhere productive, it does show how much of social control, including politicians and police rely on our believing in them, more so than their use of force or authority. That's why the lot of them wear uniforms. The power isn't in the position per se, but in the symbolism and our acceptance of the signals of that position/power/authority.
There was a lot of out side influence (a lot of that from the US) that caused them to stop believing in their government. It didn't just happen one day over night.