You're failing to recognize how long this strategy has been used effectively to suppress the people.
There are a number of reasons why this strategy is coming undone now, including waning US power, and the rapid sharing of information among masses of people.
We've given Egypt over 16ish Billion dollars over the last 10 years, (http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm) and we don't have the influence to disrupt a student uprising?
At some point, the people of the middle east are going to have to start looking in the mirror to solve their problems.