Squalor really pisses me off. It completely prevents me from playing normally at high difficulty levels, and even at medium difficulty level, I often have to cheat and add buildings that improve public order.
It's not that hard to control:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...-game%21%21%21

Post #22 has screenshots to show how well ZPG works. That's vanilla RTW---no modifications, and no keyboard cheats. Can be done with nearly any faction with a 95+% rate of success. Best part is, once ZPG is attained, no governor is required---saving your general from acquiring all those nasty traits that come from fat-and-lazy city living...

There's also this:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt.../37586-Squalor