Downward Spiral

A Downward Spiral is when things gradually go from bad to worse to even worse to as bad as they can get. A Downward Spiral can take many forms, with such forms being emotional, mental, social, economic, environmental, or academic. Spirals are typically chronic, meaning that as they're getting more severe, they don't show any signs of ending soon. Spirals can last for months, years, or even decades depending on the kind of Spiral that's in question.

Examples of Downward Spirals
YouTube

EmpLemon [Reinforced]. The biggest reason that this page you're reading right now exists, EmpLemon is known for his meme "Downward spiral". It began in the summer of 2017 when EmpLemon read a comment from Stuart K. Riley that reads "I think Lemon has been on a downward spiral mentally and now he's lost it completely." posted on YouChew about EmpLemon's ASCENDEDascended video. From then on, EmpLemon used Downward Spiral as a meme that also well reflected how he felt about his YouTube channel at the time. The Downward Spiral itself is a warped green-and-blue spiral (possibly originating from this) that has the Endless Stairs them from Super Mario 64 playing in reverse while a robotic voiceundefined repeats the phrase "Downward spiral".

YouTube itself. YouTube has seen a noticeable decline in quality content and fairness in the treatment of its userbase from the beginning of its existence. Some speculate that YouTube's Downward Spiral began around the beginning of the 2010s. A video made by the man who is most responsible for this very page's existence can be found here explaining this in much better detail.