Evitable

[dukealien]

Power rots countries
Exhibit A: America

An astute observation.  Various cultures succumb to corruption of their power structure at different rates, and in different characteristic ways.  Some have learned to deal with it - Mexico, for example, with a single party and one six-year presidential term per president (lately they've been experimenting with multiple parties, verdict not yet in).  Huge amounts of corruption, but avoids tanks in the streets.  (If you don't count narco technicals.)

China (like Mexico, a culture rather than a race regardless of what it claims) has evolved a repeating cycle:  revolution (formerly known as dynasty change) usually triggered by outside invasion, followed by a century or two decline from virile rectitude to absolute corruption... hence the phoenix metaphor.

America (the US) tried to wargame all known paths to corruption and block them by various means - separation of powers, federal subsidiarity, and a written constitution (including the much-reviled Electoral College, which sounds like something Napoleon could have dreamed up as a plebiscite but in fact predates him).  The trouble is, a system with that many moving parts is vulnerable to disorder if one or two of its parts become maladjusted.  It has, after all, lasted only a little longer than the average Chinese dynasty (which the CCP has not and likely won't); perhaps it will prove able to resist the present corruption rather than follow the Chinese cultural response (lie back and enjoy it).