It's the nobility's own undoing lol. William Doyle's OUP Very Short introduction(these aren't really a primer, methinks, it's not easy, in fact quite authoritative) stresses this aspect, like Schama did as well in his bestseller Citizens(Schama is in fact quite critical of the Revolution, from the Conservative's point of view, following the Burke tradition; unlike Israel)
The government in fact tried various financial reforms; the nobility rejected them all, fearing the encroachment of their privileges(for example Frenchy nobles didn't pay tax). Everybody feared of the resumption of the Estate General; nobody knew what would happen. But when the government's reforms got blocked, the only way left was to reconvene it.
The rest is history of course.
Since I'm suitably impressed with Doyle's Short one, so am looking forward to reading his
http://www.amazon.com/The-Oxford-History-French-Revolution/dp/019925298X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y
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