Damon said:
IRC, thinking back to my college classes, the downfall of both the Old and Middle kingdoms came during times of political unrest...
It's quite hard at this distance to determine the causes of the end of the Old and Middle kingdoms when we can only barely discern even the symptoms. What is clear is that the end of both was a gradual process, with a weakened central authority coexisting with strengthening regional administrations for many decades, rather than a dramatic downfall.
(There was a tendency towards regionalism throughout Egyptian history, especially when weakened pharaohs allowed administrative or religious posts in the nomes to become hereditary. A strong king was largely one who could impose his will in appointing people to these posts.)
In the case of the First Intermediate Period, it's been suggested that a period of reduced inundations of the Nile in turn reduced the agricultural surplus on which the Old Kingdom regime depended, and local people looked to local powers to provide for them during a time of famine. The Second Intermediate Period saw the Nile delta dominated by the Hyksos kings, who invaded Egypt from Palestine. The Middle Kingdom had seen a gradual infiltration of Egypt by "asiatics" (including people from the Eastern Desert) and perhaps the support of these people for the Hyksos invaders proved the deciding factor.
(As I've already said, the increased power of the priesthood of Amun was a factor in the end of the New Kingdom, as was the erosion of the Egyptian empire in Palestine and Syria under pressure from the Hittites.)
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