ATHENS — Dino Giannopoulos, 50, kept right on selling papers from his newsstand in Syntagma Square on Wednesday even as thousands of public servants gathered nearby to protest a relentless series of government austerity measures.

The riot police were fanning out. Some stores were beginning to pull down their steel shutters. But even so, like many Athenians who continued to sit in nearby cafes, Mr. Giannopoulos was unimpressed.

The protesters did not represent him, he said, or most Greeks for that matter. Most Greeks, he said, were weary these days, unsure what to think.

“We have become zombies,” he said “What we see ahead is a dead end. There is no way out.”

The protest, which was over in about an hour and a half, drew about 13,000 participants, the police said. Organizers said 20,000. But even the higher number is still about half the rate of participation seen earlier this year — a sign some say of growing resignation in the face of a constant stream of grim developments.