fall to bits

“The idea that everything could fall to bits, and basic things could just stop, it’s not really imaginable to us,” he said.

And that can cause the car to fall to bits as effectively as if it were attacked with a massive knife.

And just as the new EU members were able to join "the West," it started to fall to bits.

“The challenge for you would be to give readers a road map through the work that would be illuminating rather than confusing,” she wrote, adding, “It will all fall to bits without a plan.”

Then the national contest would fall to bits.