degeneration

noun

medical term
act or process of degrading or reducing in quality, passing from a higher to a lower type or condition, becoming morally or intellectually bad or worse, deteriorating

Pronunciation: /dɪˌdʒɛnəˈɹeɪʃən/

Etymology: From French dégénération, from Latin dēgenerātiō.

The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse.
“The modern cry of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish.”
“Hence, regional soil degenerations and podsolization was probably an important factor contributing to the retrogressive change in the forest composition at the end of the mesocratic phase..”
That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure.
“fatty degeneration of the liver”
Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
A thing that has degenerated.
“cockle, aracus, […] and other degenerations”