Regime change operations regularly utilized USAID and NED (which, in turn, was often itself funded by USAID) to foster social instability, back opposition forces, and just generally cause chaos. For one particularly absurd instance in more contemporary times, here [1] is USAID trying to cause civil unrest in Cuba and instead ultimately just creating a honey pot for the Cuban government. Note that article is ~11 years old - it's not just a justification for contemporary actions.

[1] - https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/04/03/cuban-twitter-and-other... (archive: https://archive.is/IQl36)