We are often more content to point to the oppression or unjust policies of some ruler or nation as the root of our problems. There has been no greater cause for human progress than Islam and only when people adopted Islamic principles did they prosper. Conversely, it was when Muslims abandoned these principles that they began to falter. Al-'Uthaimeen once stated what we all need to admit. They affect its ease, its prosperity, its economy, and they affect the hearts of its people.
Sins cause alienation between the people.
Sins cause one Muslim to regard his Muslim brother as if he were upon a separate religion other than Islam. Since if we look at them from a materialistic perspective then the unbelievers are stronger than us in the materialistic sense and they hold sway over us and enslave us through that. We should therefore look at our own sins as the cause of our difficulties. What the shaykh has stated is neither new nor newly discovered. It is rather overlooked, ignored or forgotten by all too many.