Quagmire (noun)

1. A soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot.
2. A difficult or precarious situation or state of affairs.

Origin:

From middle english quagmire, quagmire, from old english cwacmyrge ("marsh"), from cwac ("shaky, quivering") + myrge ("marsh").

Examples:

1. The troops struggled to move through the quagmire of the swamp.
2. The company found itself in a financial quagmire after the stock market crash.
3. The project is stuck in a quagmire of red tape and bureaucracy.
4. The city's transportation system is in a quagmire of debt and mismanagement.
5. Trapped in a quagmire of debt, the company was forced to declare bankruptcy.