So I'm reading about the Fall of the Soviet Empire. The description of its internal rot looked a little too close for comfort.

From Down With Big Brother by Michael Dobbs:

...the Soviet Union had become a sclerotic giant. Its bureaucratic arteries had shriveled and hardened. Years of ideological indoctrination, or, more simply, years of lies had produced an atmosphere of total cynicism. Edicts were issued from the center and promptly forgotten; grandiose projects were announced and never completed; statistics had ceased to have any meaning...

Does this seem eerily familiar to anyone else?

Here's the kicker: the author worked for the Washington Post!