position vs frequency

I was heading west on highway 64 just past downtown St. Louis when ahead I saw a pickup truck pulling a trailer, veering a bit left then right then left as it traveled down the road. It was clear that the driver was aware of the problem, and figured that his job was to keep returning the truck to its own lane.

This logic, as simple and impeccable in intent as it was, was alas dead wrong because the driver's response-time fit beautifully with the resonant-frequency of the weave. Like someone kicking one's legs at exactly the right time to pump up the motion of a playground swing, the driver's logic loop repeatedly pumped energy into the weave, which got wilder and wilder until all of a sudden the truck and trailer spun out into a parked position across five lanes of traffic.

Likewise there's a danger when political communities run into problems whose natural response time is comparable to the election cycle.  Like the truck driver who was focused only on position on the road and oblivious to the response time of the system, the community could easily pump energy into an instability by reacting naturally from one election to the next.  

Can you think of places where this might be relevant today?