The Impulse to Destroy in Philosophy

I've been curious for a while about a strange phenomenon in philosophy--the impulse to wreck the whole enterprise. Ayer apparently had the goal of "ending" philosophy. Wittgenstein exhibits some of these same impulses too. Where does it come from? Is it only present in the analytic tradition? Is it because analytic philosophers think they're getting a better theory of "truth," and that they can find such an ultimate theory, like string theorists looking for M-Theory? Do continental types not have this impulse, as they might think of what they as literature? I doubt any novelist ever desired to write something that would destroy fiction.