Every crisis presents an opportunity for opportunistic politicians and bureaucrats to amplify and cement their authority, even when expanding governmental power does nothing to truly resolve the crisis. A fearful public, made dependent on big government in troubled times, will tend to acquiesce to this ratcheting up of state power and control. The result is a unidirectional growth of Leviathan, as the state apparatus enlarges in each spasm of crisis, despite exacerbating the crises rather than alleviating them. The precedent and inertia of bloating bureaucracy then make it difficult to reverse the accretion of power after the crisis passes.