How long after the fall of the Western Empire did it take for the average Roman to realize that they didn't live in the Roman Empire anymore?

by MundaneInquirer

Heavily inspired by this post.

I have heard multiple times by now that the "fall of Rome" wasn't really that much of a sudden transformation of the state, so the average citizen by then would probably not have noticed all that much.

But by what point would the average Person recognized any changes made by the post-Roman governments?

Georgy_K_Zhukov

More can be said here, but do check out our FAQ for some older content on this.