death spiral

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun aviation The downward, corkscrew-motion of a disabled aircraft which is unrecoverably headed for a crash.
• noun A manoeuvre in which a male skater spins in place while holding one hand of his female skating partner as she circles around him with one skate on the ice and one leg extended outward parallel to the ice surface, all the while slowly lowering herself until her back almost touches the ice surface.
• noun idiomatic, by extension The situation or course of action of one who is on a path toward some sort of inevitable catastrophic failure.