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Another thought on inflation is what for want of a better term I'll call automatic compounding.

Examples:

Councils often use CPI as a basis for rate setting, on the logic that so long as they don't increase rates by more than CPI then they haven't increased them at all in real terms.

Wages in large organisations, especially government, tend to be negotiated for the entire workforce at one and either CPI is a reference point in those negotiations or the outcome includes CPI as a reference for the calculation of increases beyond the first year of the agreement. Eg x% now plus CPI after 12 months and again after 24 months.

Regulated monopolies, for example gas and electricity networks, very commonly use CPI as a reference in the calculation of permitted rate increases.

Things like bus fares, parking fees, fixed rate government charges (eg car registration) tend not to be directly linked to CPI but it does form the basis when a periodic review is done. Whoever's in charge works on the basis that they can hike the price by CPI and, since that's not a "real" increase, they can easily defend doing so.

I've just become aware that in some countries consumer mobile phone and similar contracts commonly include a clause for CPI indexation. So you've signed up to a (say) $50 per month plan but that's automatically annually incremented by CPI and as a customer you're deemed to have agreed to the new rate.

And many more.

The common theme and my underlying point being a positive feedback loop. As CPI increases that of itself automatically triggers, or at least opens the door to, further price rises. The higher CPI goes, the higher will be the increase in those things for which it forms the basis of determining.

I suspect that sort of arrangement was far less common last time inflation was a problem since the basis of price setting was quite different. Years ago manufacturers commonly "recommended" what price shops should sell products at and things like utilities were based on actual costs with or without a fixed profit ratio. CPI wasn't a direct reference in the setting of prices, the statistic itself didn't directly feed in to future prices whereas now it does.

Even the excise tax on petrol automatically goes up with CPI whereas that used to be a purely political decision to change it. The higher CPI goes, the higher petrol goes and that pushes the CPI up. Feedback loop.