Cycle of Tyranny

The cycle undergoes the following phases:

1. Status-Quo
   The default condition: the vast majority of people are oppressed and exploited by a ruling elite, and a specific ideology or religion is used to justify the existing state of things; this is the time of "traditional" obscurantist rule.
2. Counter-culture
   After continuous exploitation, discontent eventually arises, and ideas of liberation start originating; at first, the establishment's reaction to such ideas is to directly and openly attack them, relegating them to a minoritarian counter-culture and forcing their supporters to act in the shadows.
3. Corruption
   As the opposing ideologies, despite continued suppression, continue to propagate to the point of becoming a concern, the ruling power tries to appropriate them and corrupt them into a distorted version, carefully crafted to suit their interests; this can be done either by infiltrating already existing opposing movements and subverting them from the inside, or by creating puppet ones from the ground up.
4. Revolution
   Once that the entire counter-culture has been thoroughly corrupted and emptied of all its radical emancipatory elements, becoming nothing more than a pawn for the elites, it can be allowed to win and become the new dominant ideology.
5. New Order
   In the places where the revolution happens, a "new" social order arises which is basically undistinguishable from the old one, except formally; this is the time of "modernized" obscurantist rule.
6. Competition
   People are now divided in 2 factions: the supporters of the new order and those who remain loyal to the old one; this might also be reflected in terms of geopolitical division, with a new arising international block opposed to a conservative one that remained faithful to the old order. The evident (and intended) evils brought by the former are used as a warning for the people of the latter from revolting; some concessions might be made for the same purpose, but also to reiterate the superiority of the old order compared to the "new" one.
7. Reaction
   More and more people eventually become disillusioned with the new system, creating a reactionary "counter-culture" that rejects the new order in its entirety; the establishment deals with this in the same way as it dealt with the previous one (that is.: infiltration and subversion).
8. Reset
   When the pushback against the "new" order has become widespread enough, the latter is allowed to collapse; the old order and its ideology (or an equivalent) are restored.