Attempted reform itself was the process that wrecked the Soviet economy. As soon as there was a hint that the system would start to reward owners, each bureaucrat and shop keeper was on his or her own. They each tried to gain a hold on as much property as possible. Sausages rotted in storerooms as shopkeepers waited to profiteer from higher prices. Every plant manager salted away as much as he could, both to profit from free prices and to protect himself from the uncertain economy.
Every modern state uses panic and despair for it's own ends.
Much of the collapse of the Soviet Union was and is ultimately aimed at panicking the working class into letting the ruling class extract further concessions. Chaos and collapse forced each section of the bureaucracy to try to enforce its own solution to the crisis. The break-up of the Soviet Union and the acceleration of nationalism and the regional conflicts was a strategy for protecting the power of the bureaucrats in each region. The bureaucratic system of each region was the result of Stalin's schemes to rule by exploiting the nationalism of each group. The destruction of the communist party was perfect as a means to anoint the same old bureaucrats with a new task.