Er, I think it just means you are during the "aspiration for liberty" period. So it's not really your government stops working, but your people thinking your government is incompetent when compared to the more ideal government types.
It's affected by stability, "revolt_percentage" (what's this? national unrest?), bad ruler ADM, OE >=10%, non-administrative monarchies (yes enlightened despotism is hated by revolutionaries more than administrative monarchies, which kind of makes sense since Louis XVI is "enlightened despotism").