The loss of the Ark

When Eli heard that the Israeli army had been defeated by the Phillistines, he took the news like a man.  When he heard that both his sons were killed in the battle, he accepted it.  When he heard that the Phillistines had captured the ark, he fell to the floor, broke his neck, and died.  Pinchas’ wife has the same reaction and goes into labor and dies.  This seems to indicate a level of spiritual failure of the people, that the army was defeated with tremendous loss of life, yet what really caused grief and anguish was the loss of this inanimate object.