The protests were piling pressure on Mrs. Lam, and a few pro-establishment politicians have called for a shake-up of her senior advisers. Mrs. Lam has suspended the bill indefinitely but not fully withdrawn it, and in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday did not indicate any willingness to make further concessions.

Asked if she would restart political reforms to give the people of Hong Kong universal suffrage, Mrs. Lam sidestepped the question, but acknowledged that there were “fundamental deep-seated problems” that could be related to the economy, cost of living or politics.

Protesters and pro-democracy lawmakers want to protect the high degree of autonomy Hong Kong was promised when it was returned to China in 1997 under a policy known as “one country, two systems.” That autonomy is guaranteed until 2047, but the Communist Party and its security apparatus have increasingly encroached on the territory.

The last sustained protest movement demanding a direct say in the election of the territory’s chief executive ended in failure in 2014. Since then, Beijing has intervened to remove six politicians elected to Hong Kong’s legislature, a major setback for the opposition. Several others were disqualified from running in local elections by officials who questioned the sincerity of their belief that Hong Kong is an “inalienable part” of China.

As a result, protesters and experts say, the political playing field is so far out of balance that many of Hong Kong’s youth have felt shut out, and blame the generations of politicians before them for compromising their futures for the sake of seeking Beijing’s favor.

The experts and protesters say this may help explain why, when those frustrations boiled over at the legislature last week, many others in the movement remained sympathetic, seeing it as a culmination of years of pent-up anger.