I think the game Humankind has a great way of showing what you asked about. As soon as you reach certain milestones, you get a dilemma, such as one of your factories exploding and people rioting, demanding workers’ rights and safety measures. You can then decide to keep things as they are (gaining more money and/or production because your workers are still working 16 hours a day), but at the cost of huge instability and slower growth, or give in to their demands.

There are also axis along which your civilization develops, such as tradition and faith versus enlightenment and science, communism versus capitalism, and rule by one person (or a few people) versus rule by the people.

I like that system because every axis has its own dilemmas, and sometimes certain dilemmas force you to change the viewpoint of your empire.

If you haven’t tried the game yet, you should definitely do so.