In the days when the democrats routinely won elections, life was much simpler for the people who run Hong Kong, a non-elected elite who work on the assumption that election results have nothing to do with them and, so, whatever the outcome, it's business as usual. They knew that in places like the legislature, the democrats' presence could easily be nullified by the serried ranks of rotten borough representatives.
Now it appears that pro-government parties can also triumph at the polls and this greatly complicates things.
While the democrats were winning elections, officials went around bewailing the 'immaturity' of the electorate. It is, however, rather problematic to argue that the electorate is 'immature' and 'unrealistic' when it goes out and votes for so-called pro-government candidates.
The term 'pro-government' was all fine and dandy for the parties that had an essentially client relationship with the government. This meant that those who had little chance of gaining elective office were slotted into non-elected positions by way of government patronage. As a result, the recipients felt obliged to be supportive of their patrons.
However, the boot is on the other foot when these parties start winning elections. Indeed, even members of the Liberal Party have shown themselves capable of winning non-rotten-borough elections. Thus, the so-called pro-government parties now have a mandate which they will use to remind their former patrons that they have demands that need to be met. Lamentably, the emboldened pro-establishment camp is more likely to use its influence to shore up its own position than for the good of the people.
This pro-establishment camp is not a single entity. The conflicting interests within its ranks give scope for the bureaucrats to play one section of the camp against the other. But there is a limit to this manipulation because it is now clear that there is only one really important member of the 'pro-government camp' and that is the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.