The patterns of a failed state are all too familiar from the Soviet Union, and every "Democratic People's Republic" from Cuba to North Korea . The government controls everything and the people control nothing. The largest employer is the government and its vast bureaucracy, while free enterprise is criminalized.
The government constantly announces new initiatives, plans and policies, which do nothing but breed more poverty and misery. An ever watchful government is constantly obsessed with domestic unrest, certain that if they can suppress opposition views, no one will notice how badly everyone but the government officials and the criminals live.