“Catastrophe” or “crisis” have a long history of use for sudden change phenomena, especially associated with some major failure or blow up of a previous pattern

“Catastrophe” or “crisis” have a long history of use for sudden change phenomena, especially associated with some major failure or blow up of a previous pattern of system behavior. “Critical” may be a more familiar word used in similar contexts, honed in on a specific threshold of a dramatic behavior change. None of these words in this usage style refer to the scientific social process, but to the phenomena.