Their cynicism eat themselves inside out.
This is all due to profound sense of impotence.
They cherish their former glory. Try anything to get back. However, they can't. Principally, their socialist ideology got in their way, who was zealously guarded by their powerful intellectual class. They had to maintain left-wing theocracy of socialism, where they are undisputed ruling class. Overzealous intellectuals did them in.
We have to watch for the same "Overzealous intellectuals" here.....