Very likely tied to some yet to be identified standard decay rate linked to the entrenchment of nepotism and consolidation of power around a handful of non-prod

Very likely tied to some yet to be identified standard decay rate linked to the entrenchment of nepotism and consolidation of power around a handful of non-producing families who are detached from the needs of the people whose culture they, er, cultivate to support their own otherwise impossible existence. De Toqueville goes into this a little bit in Democracy in America, IIRC his theory seemed to be that traditions of inheritance and entail impart the largest bias on lengthening or shortening the time this entrenchment takes to become pathological.