go into a tailspin

Idioms  

1. Lose emotional control, collapse, panic. For example, If she fails the bar exam again, she's sure to go into a tailspin. This expression alludes to the downward movement of an airplane out of control, in which the tail describes a spiral. [Early 1900s]

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Example Sentences

It all started well, with good early wins and the success of signings Andros Townsend Demarai Gray but injuries to key figures such as England striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin saw Everton's season go into a tailspin.

From BBC

Democracy in the United States can go into a tailspin.

From Salon

The straight-arrow life of a single mother begins to go into a tailspin when her drifter brother returns home.

From Los Angeles Times

That is because face-to-face service industries — the kind of businesses that go into a tailspin when fearful people withdraw from one another — tend to dominate economies in high-income countries more than they do in China.

From New York Times

"It was such an obvious threat to our business model. And for probably the next 15 years the record industry did indeed go into a tailspin."

From BBC