Check out Political Ponerology. Its theory explains a similar cycle to yours but its not faith that saves people, its a specific knowledge of psychopathy and related pathologies. When you understand how psychopaths operate you can remove them from power and have a healthy and free society. When this knowledge is lost then they take over all positions of power and inflict tyranny on the normal humans. The hard times from this enslavement make people research psychology to understand their leaders and what they are thinking. This is what allows them to keep their own psychology clean and to free others from the brainwashing.