1999 Chrysler Cirrus Cascade of unfortunate events

Hi,

My car has been giving me quite a few problems (all of a sudden). Two weeks back my fuel pump failed, had that fixed and on the same day and headed out to make a 420 mile trip from NYC to buffalo. Car broke down somewhere in Pennsylvania and found a mechanic told me the distributor cap and distributor had failed. Got that fixed and now (two weeks later) the engine feels like its not running with optimal power. I can sometimes see the rpm meter needle fluctuate while cruising at 55mph. My car always felt good to drive on the highway but now it does not. And also my steering makes a grinding noise at times and has gotten extremely hard. Car also makes grinding noises when I go over a bump. I know these are a lot of problems but I'm trying to put everything out there so maybe be you guys could make sense of it and see if all these problems could be interconnected. Weird part is, everything started happening all of a sudden. I would really appreciate any help. Have already spent close to a 1000 dollars fixing the pump and distributor.