As we go deeper into the last phase of Western Civilization…

As we go deeper into the last phase of Western Civilization, a new perspective on why Civilizations are caught up in a cycle in the first place presents itself:
As the state apparatus grows, as it inevitably does throughout the cycle of any given Civilization, people get dumber. The dumber they get, the more government they want.
More government -> more idiocy -> more government
A vicious cycle that leads straight to the point where people are simply too stupid to keep society going and everything falls apart.