Looks like a universal pattern across different domains: an immediate cause of human death is usually different from the long-term cause of their health deterio

Looks like a universal pattern across different domains: an immediate cause of human death is usually different from the long-term cause of their health deterioration. Similarly, an immediate cause of crash is typically different from the root cause of the problem. But is there really such a thing as "a root cause"? I guess we can always look deeper.