EGYPT COUP: WHERE MURSY GOT IT WRONG

Mohamed Morsy, Egypt's first democratically elected president, has been ousted from office just over a year into his presidency.

Deposed by the military and reportedly held under house arrest, Morsy's fall from power has been nothing if not rapid.

Egypt's powerful military stepped in July 3, hours after a deadline the generals had set for Morsy to order reforms expired.

The military's intervention followed days of opposition protests, during which hundreds of thousands of people massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere to demand that he step down and call fresh presidential elections, or face a campaign of civil disobedience.

The news of Morsy's downfall prompted further mass street demonstrations, with both his opponents and his supporters turning out to celebrate, or protest, his ouster.

Morsy, who is backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and best-organized political movement, insists he remains the country's legitimate leader.

As the deadline neared, he offered to form an interim coalition government to oversee parliamentary elections and revise the constitution that was enacted in January.

But Egypt's top military officer, Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, said he "did not achieve the goals of the people" and had failed to meet the generals' demands that he share power with his opposition.

So where did it all go wrong?

A strict Islamist educated in southern California, Morsy was elected Egypt's president in June 2012 after a campaign focused on appealing to the broadest possible audience.

But critics say he became increasingly authoritarian and

forced through a conservative agenda during his year in power.

He is also blamed for failing to revive Egypt's economy, which crashed when the 2011 uprising, which toppled longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak, drove tourists away.

That led many of his supporters among Egypt's poor and middle class to become disaffected, said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics, speaking before Morsy fell.

"That some of the revolutionaries are calling on the army to return to politics is a testament to how polarized Egypt is a year after the election of Morsy," Gerges said. "Think of the millions of people who cheered Morsy after his election. Think of the millions of Egyptians who pinned their hopes on Morsy.

"A year later, now, the millions of Egyptians who cheered for Morsy are saying he must go."

Among the causes for complaint are lack of security, rising food prices, long fuel lines, and frequent electricity cuts during the scorching Egyptian summer,

"The Brotherhood, however, is in complete denial of this. Brotherhood leaders and members contend that Morsi has been a mostly successful president,"

arak. Dissatisfaction with economic conditions in the country was already high.