"showing cracks in the dam"

[Odessa Dawn]

"But it’s not just the survival of the Khalifa regime that is at stake. It’s the entire US-backed order of Arab monarchies which has been in place for over six decades, and which is now showing cracks in the dam. This order has historically guaranteed the West a reliable source of oil; and more recently it is crucial to shoring up the bankrupt petrodollar system that Anglo-American global capitalism depends on."
More: PressTV - Bahrain uprising threatens US hegemony

Is the closet in meaning to the underlined part; starting to lose power, control is being relinquished, things are getting worse, no more hegemony, or no more united front?

[HanibalII]

"But it’s not just the survival of the Khalifa regime that is at stake. It’s the entire US-backed order of Arab monarchies which has been in place for over six decades, and which is now showing cracks in the dam. This order has historically guaranteed the West a reliable source of oil; and more recently it is crucial to shoring up the bankrupt petrodollar system that Anglo-American global capitalism depends on."
More: PressTV - Bahrain uprising threatens US hegemony

Is the closet in meaning to the underlined part; starting to lose power, control is being relinquished, things are getting worse, no more hegemony, or no more united front?

They are starting to break apart/become strained.

[BobK]

? - Starting to. There early signs of the strain.

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