From “Mission Accomplished” to “Mission Impossible,” it seems that the supernovas of politics and pop culture, George W. Bush and Tom Cruise, have finally worn out their public — which might tell us a few things about where this country’s voters are headed.

Hollywood is abuzz with talk that Cruise’s career is over, as evidenced by a recent Gallup Poll showing that only 35 percent of the country views the movie actor favorably. Washington is equally flustered by Gallup’s eerily similar finding that only 31 percent view the president favorably. Experts in both cities are saying the damage could be irreversible.

While Cruise disappoints at the box office with his latest “Mission Impossible” flick, Bush’s real-life action adventure in Iraq, along with his domestic agenda on Capitol Hill, are also finding fewer and fewer satisfied buyers. And both are floundering for a comeback, resorting to an arsenal of public relations gimmicks that no longer pack a punch for voters and moviegoers who seem to ache for new — and more authentic — heroes.

This intersection of politics and culture played out on opposite coasts last week as both Bush and Cruise deployed a tired trick to get back in good graces with their fans: holding court with the little people. On May 9 in Aberdeen, Wash., the actor escorted a local Wal-Mart employee, the winner of an online trivia contest, to a private screening of his film — with a battalion of news cameras on hand, of course. On the same day, the president winged his way to Florida for “quality time” with seniors, and the next day he met in the White House with average Americans victimized by identity theft — also accompanied by whirring cameras producing images of the president empathizing with common folk.

Neither ploy, nor anything else the two once-invincible stars are doing these days, seems to have much effect on the hardening views against them. Indeed, such stunts only serve to reinforce what ails their images. Call it the phony factor. Time and reality have caught up with both men. Their acts are losing appeal because, well, they are both performers in their own way, and more play-acting is not what they need to regain their footing.

Watching Cruise flash that toothy, over-the-top grin that so dazzled his fans years ago, when he burst on the scene in “Risky Business,” now seems about as disingenuous as Bush’s acquired Texas accent and efforts to appear down-home. What was once viewed as the president’s admirable common touch is now relentlessly satirized on comedy shows.

Perhaps this is all a function of society’s perverse tendency to put idols on pedestals in order to eventually topple them. But there seems to be more going on in the case of these two meltdowns.

It is more likely a lesson in what happens when you take the image-crafting too far, stretching the public way beyond their ability to suspend disbelief. When Bush put on that flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier to proclaim “mission accomplished” three years ago, he was trying to be a movie star. When Cruise went on NBC’s “Today” show and opined about psychiatric medicine, he was trying to be a public policy figure. Both men got outside their zones and left the public behind.

Reality eventually caught up with Bush’s effort to play conquering hero. The mission in Iraq was not accomplished — not then, not now; and no one knows when it might be. The more he pretends otherwise, the less chance he has for a comeback. It is no accident that the Gallup pollsters pegging his overall approval at 31 percent found support for his handling of Iraq at virtually the same number: 32 percent.

But even a turnaround in Iraq, it now appears, could not shake the deepening views that Bush misled the nation into war, that he is not really who he seems to be, or that he is hiding things from the public. In other words, too many Americans think Bush is a not the real thing — a fundamental change from the days when he seemed as authentic and plain-spoken as Harry S Truman.

Even a gullible public has its limits when presented with inauthentic authenticity, a point echoed by an old political maxim about the dangers of superficial image-making: If you live by the tube, you die by the tube.

Whatever the causes, and however much Bush and Cruise bear the blame for what’s happened to them, their moment has passed, and a new crop of heroes are on the horizon. George Clooney, who seems to be more devoted to his craft than his fame, is at 66 percent approval in Gallup, and after a romp at the Oscars, he is being hailed as the new king of Hollywood. We’ll have to see how long that lasts, of course.

But as the casting call for a new president begins, the downfall of Bush and Cruise suggests that voters might just be ready to look past phony images in search of the real deal.

Contributing Editor Craig Crawford is a news analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and “The Early Show” on CBS. He can be reached at ccrawford@cq.com.