The alpha-omega

This is how it starts (and ends):

It works like this. The government enacts a stupid policy doomed to failure. When the policy inevitably fails, the government swoops in to fix it by expanding its power. Repeat as needed.
There is no government failure so big that the government will not attempt to use it to expand the scope of its power. Regardless of whether their policies fail or succeed, both results are cited as evidence that more centralized power is required.

Sound familiar?

pm