Insight - Year into Sisi's power, Egyptians lament persistent hardships

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi addresses a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel following talks at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany June 3, 2015. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

CAIRO (Reuters) - After a year in power, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's aura of invincibility may be fading as he comes under closer scrutiny from a public growing impatient with the same social inequalities that triggered a mass uprising in 2011.

To be sure, Sisi is still firmly in control, with security forces cracking down on dissent, and Western and Gulf Arab powers on his side, pumping billions of dollars into the economy each year to support a strategic ally.