There is a famous philosophy of Ibn Khildon about political power in which he describes a cycle of 150 years. In it there are three phases of power, in first phase is like a wolf second is like dog and third is like a sheep.
A wolf represents, a founder of power who laid the foundation of power,
Dog is represents, preserver or power builder, and sheep which is indicating vulnerability, which become victim of next wolf.
So it is true that in a hierarchy one who is strong like a wolf laid the foundation of power, dog try to preserve it because he is witness of hard work which was done by the founder, but by getting comforts he started to become corrupt,
In third phase a generation starts with comfort and he have a different view towards life , it indicates a corrupt generation which don’t use to work hard and become fail to preserve power.
But in exceptional cases this cycle could run long the 150 years for instance Mughal dynasty rules on sub continent approximate 150 years.