But by overriding the Republican government, appealing to the mob (with populares such as Caesar), establishing the precedent that Roman armies could be used to enforce leadership, these dictatorships prepared the way for the Principate. People became accustomed to new sources of political power which did not rise from the voting Centuries or Roman traditions, i.e. Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque. Outcome rather than intention,wouldn't you say?
I suspect our disagreement is one of emphasis, not substance.
The various dictators and civil wars were a symptom of the decline and collapse of the Republic, not their cause. Though of course they contributed.
In the final analysis, IMO, the Republic fell because absolutely nobody really believed in it anymore. Just as the USSR fell for the same reason.
You can always find people willing to kill for a cause. But if you don’t have those who are willing to die for the cause, its days are numbered.
But wasn’t massive importation of slave labor and illegal immigration by the cheese-eating Gauls the reason for the pressure on the average Plebe that the dictators were able to exploit?