We're almost at the end of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. We've witnessed the return of the Sith, the decline of the Republic, the arrival of the Chosen One, the faultering Jedi and Order 66.
Chancellor Palpatine stands in the midst of the Senate chamber and tells of the attempt on his life, the Jedi plot to overthrow the Republic and his intention to hunt down the remaining Jedi Knights.
But what do the assembled Senators from a thousand far-flung star systems do in reaction to this devastating news?
They applaud. Wildly.

But should we be surprised by this?

"For a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the old Republic", or so Ben Kenobi told us. They meted out summary justice, were brought in to planetary disputes, were able to settle problems without invitiation or recourse for their actions. They used their mind control powers to influence the weak-minded, answered to no-one and believed themselves to be `better' than the general poplace.

That could be a common belief held by an average citizen of the Republic. The Jedi thought themselves superior, and in many ways they were, with their connection to the Force. But it's possible many saw them as not only the strong arm of the Republic, but as a faction in itself.
And perhaps some within the Republic saw them as a threat too.

Being a wily politician, Palpatine sensed this groundswell of negative feeling towards the Jedi. Indeed, it was this negativity that he used to turn the Republic and the citizens of the galaxy against the Jedi. But the Jedi were no politicians. They didn't trust politicians, as Kenobi pointed out on more than one occasion, They didn't see the turn of the tide against them until it was too late. Their "arrogance blinded them", to paraphrase Palpatine.

So when Palpatine stated his intention to wipe out the Jedi, were the Senate merely hoodwinked into following and believing what he was saying, or was there more to it than that? After all, he had played the Separatists against the Republic, built the Jedi up to be heroes before engineering their `betrayal', and everyone followed blindly.
Was the removal of the Jedi something that many Senate members secretly longed for?
Certainly they wouldn't have expected to replace the Jedi with a Sith overlord, or the kind of Empire they ultimately wound up with, but at the time of Revenge of the Sith, with a weak and seemingly corrupt Republic about to crumble, and the Jedi exposed as traitors, is it surprising that they turned on their Jedi protectors?

It seems an obvious question - the facts are right there on screen, but go deeper and you could begin to see a line of events that doomed the Jedi a long time before the prequels.

"Jedi poodu!" - Attack of the Clones