I've always argued that modern (late-stage?) capitalism and state socialism have similar failure modes. In state socialism, the Politburo controlled economic distribution and used their power to enrich themselves and their buddies. In many modern capitalist systems politicians are captured by economic interests and so large corporations play the same role that the Politburo played in state socialist systems.

The failure modes always center around the capture of popular opinion, whether through explicit buy-in from the state or through aggressive PR campaigns.