the.com/escalation
A small problem doing push-ups until it can beat you up.
means The process of a conflict, demand, or situation intensifying step by step into something bigger.
from From the escalator, that moving staircase patented in 1900 — and back-formed into a verb meaning to ride trouble upward, one inevitable step at a time.
Cold War coinageStrategists popularized it describing nuclear conflicts climbing rung by rung.
Ladder logicTheorists literally drew escalation as a numbered ladder of pain.
Customer serviceAsking for the manager is escalation in a tie.