Comment by orbital-decay

No, most of these are due to corruption and populism, also lack of interest in solving real problems. It's pretty simple to understand.

Foreign entities (a particular one really) is a tool used by corrupt politicians in each country. Eventually your political field becomes "who is the biggest traitor" and then you're finished, fascism is the only direction this is headed towards. This is your real destination, very closely modeled after that one foreign entity you have in mind. It already went through all these phases.