"Chile has changed and the government must change," the President said.

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However, his government announced no policies aimed at addressing 10 days of protests over deficient social services and the high cost of living in the prosperous and modern nation.

"A new cabinet isn't enough, we need real changes in healthcare, education, pensions," said Omar Soto, 34, who runs a mobile phone shop.

Support for Pinera has plunged to just 14 per cent, the lowest approval rating for a Chilean president since the return to democracy, the Cadem poll showed.

Many have critiqued Pinera's decision to place Santiago under military control, saying it hearkened back to the grim rule of dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinera lifted the state of emergency at midnight on Monday.

Jorge Sepulveda, a 33-year-old truck driver, said the continuing unrest had hurt his bottom line.

"I don't dispute that people have the right to protest, but this is beginning to affect us all," he said as he smoked a cigarette on a street corner downtown. But, he said, Pinera's announcements had yet to satisfy him.

"He needs to listen to the people," Sepulveda said. "This isn't over yet."

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Protesters almost uniformly say they are frustrated with the so-called neoliberal model that has left Chile with region-topping prosperity along with a widely criticised private pension system, and two-tiered health and education systems that blend the public and private, with better results for the minority who can afford to pay.

Many Chileans talk of waiting a year for an appointment with a specialist, or families receiving calls to finally set up appointments for loved ones who died months earlier. Hundreds of thousands are hobbled by educational loans that can follow them into their 40s and even 50s.

Adding to protesters' anger was a military crackdown on demonstrations and looting that has left 1132 hurt, with dozens partially blinded by police or soldiers' gunshot pellets, according to the National Human Rights Institute and the Chilean College of Medicine. The death toll from the 10 days of violence stands at 20, although it is unclear how many were killed by police and how many by looters.

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, was sending a delegation to the country on Monday to investigate the situation. Amnesty International was also sending a team.

From afar, Chile has been a regional success story - under democratically elected presidents on the left and right, a free-market consensus has driven growth up, poverty down and won it the region's highest score on the UN Human Development Index, a blend of life expectancy, education and national income per capita. In 2010, Chile became the second Latin member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, after Mexico.

Meanwhile, a 2017 UN report found that the richest 1 per cent of the population earns 33 per cent of the nation's wealth. That helps make Chile the most unequal country in the OECD, slightly worse than Mexico. Pinera himself is a billionaire, one of the country's richest men.

AP, Reuters